FKA Twigs has spoken out about almost losing her home during the pandemic
(Picture: Lee Wei Swee)FKA Twigs has revealed things got so bad for her financially during the Covid-19 pandemic that she almost lost her house
The arts were hit hard with live shows halted around the world as the virus took hold and the Cellophane singer, 34, found herself caught up in the middle of it.
At the time, her business affairs ran partially through Young (formerly Young Turks), the indie label she has been signed to since the beginning, and through herself, with her partners largely working on retainers.
That means when the British government was giving out loans to small businesses, she didn’t quite qualify, and when all her shows got cancelled – at least 22 in that first year alone – she had no income.
Appearing on the July/ August issue of British GQ magazine, FKA Twigs – real name Tahliah Debrett Barnett – said: “I came really close, and it made me pay attention and learn a lot about things that I never really paid attention to before, because I’d always been on the go… I felt like the Titanic, and I said to everybody, ‘I’m just going to keep on paying everyone until I can’t afford to pay anyone any more.’ And ooh, it got so close.”
Having grown up in a working-class family, on benefits and in social housing, the reality of almost losing her home was a “humbling and eye-opening experience,” which she is determined to learn from.
“It has been intimidating for me being a young woman running a business because I felt like I didn’t deserve to understand everything. I felt like I didn’t deserve to understand the contracts – or even, sometimes now, when you do a song, there’s royalties, publishing, there’s points, there’s who gets paid first,” she told the publication.
She is now taking back control by starting a collective and recently signing a deal with Atlantic Records.
The Gloucestershire star emphasises that she is not looking for sympathy and has told her story so that others can learn from her experience which she will be sharing further as a speaker at the GQ Heroes conference in association with BMW, taking place at Soho Farmhouse, Oxfordshire from July 13-15.
She added: “I think it’s important for specifically young women in a creative industry to have the confidence to understand their business and have the confidence to understand their worth and have the confidence to want more for themselves.”
