FKA twigs

Twigs worked across singer, singer-songwriter, drummer, record producer and dancer and 3 further recorded occupations. The registers place that work in trip hop. This article rests on 79 catalogued compositions, 57 issued recordings, 2 digitised documents and 44 scholarly references drawn from named institutional registers. Every statement below returns to a source shown in the evidence panel; where the record is silent or divided, the article says so instead of resolving it.

FKA twigs studied at St Edward's School, Cheltenham, BRIT School for Performing Arts and Technology and St. Edward's School, Cheltenham. The recorded working language is English. The field of work recorded is electronic dance music, pop music and alternative music. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are trip hop. Residence is recorded at Tewkesbury.

• Birth Name — Tahliah Debrett Barnett • Born — 17 January 1988 • Birthplace — Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England • Genre — * Avant-pop • electronic • art pop • R&B • trip hop • techno • Occupation — * Singer • songwriter • record producer • dancer • actress • Instrument — Vocals • Discography — Discography • Years Active — 2004–present • Label — * Young • XL • Atlantic • Awards — Full list • Website — fkatwigsofficial.com

Tahliah Debrett Barnett was born on 17 January 1988 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, the only child of an English mother who was a dancer and gymnast and a Jamaican father who was a musician. She has Spanish ancestry from her mother's side of the family. She was raised by her mother and stepfather, whom she described as a "jazz fanatic of Bajan descent", and did not meet her biological father until she was 18. Barnett grew up in Cheltenham, a spa town she described as being "kind of in the middle of nowhere". She attended St Edward's School, a private co-educational Catholic school. Her education at the school was funded by a scholarship award. From a young age, she undertook opera and ballet lessons and took part in several St Edward's School productions. At age 16, Barnett started making music in youth clubs. At age 17, she moved to South London to pursue a career as a dancer, and enrolled at the BRIT School. At age 18, she began working with local record producers to try to find her own musical sound. Around this time, she wrote the song "I'm Your Doll" and ended up producing a lot of what she considers to be "really bad demos". After changing her focus from dance to music, she transferred to Croydon College to pursue an education in fine arts. She worked as a backup dancer in music videos by artists such as Kylie Minogue, Plan B, Ed Sheeran, Taio Cruz, Dionne Bromfield, Jessie J, and Wretch 32. She was a backup dancer for Jessie J in her 2010 video for "Do It like a Dude", and appeared again in her 2011 video for "Price Tag". For a time, she worked as a hostess in a strip club and sang periodically at the Box Soho in Soho, City of Westminster.

In 2012, Barnett was photographed for the cover of i-D magazine. She became known as Twigs for the way her joints crack. She added the letters FKA to her name when another act called the Twigs – twin sisters active and recording since 1994 – asked her to change her stage name. It was believed or assumed that the "FKA" stood for the business abbreviation "formerly known as", but Barnett has said in multiple interviews that the letters do not stand for anything in particular: "[I]t's just a collection of letters. I was gonna be like FK1 Twigs... or AFK Twigs... I just wanted a selection of letters that sounded quite kind of masculine and strong. FKA just worked. It doesn't stand for anything, it's just capital letters." Barnett self-released her music debut, EP1, on Bandcamp on 4 December 2012. She posted a video for each song on her YouTube channel. In August 2013, she released the video for her first single, "Water Me", directed by Jesse Kanda. That same month The Guardian profiled Barnett for their "New Band of the Day" feature, describing her as "the UK's best example to date of ethereal, twisted R&B". Barnett's second extended play, EP2, was released through the Young Turks record label in September. It was produced by Barnett and Arca. Pitchfork gave EP2 a rating of 8/10. In December, she was nominated for the BBC's Sound of 2014 prize, and was chosen by Spotify for their Spotlight on 2014 list. Barnett was then featured on Billboard 14 Artists to Watch in 2014.

• Illustration — FKA Twigs performing live in Berlin (March 2015) In April 2014, Barnett appeared on the cover of The Fader for its 91st issue. She began writing for her first studio album during a period of "self-hatred", which she considers "quite normal" for a young person. On 24 June, she released "Two Weeks", the lead single from her forthcoming album, alongside a video. Barnett directed and guest-starred in the music video for "Ouch Ouch" by rapper Lucki Eck$; she produced the track. The second single, "Pendulum", was released on 29 July. Her debut studio album, LP1, was released on 6 August through the record label Young Turks. The album received widespread critical acclaim and placed high on several year-end critics' lists. Time gave a positive review, saying that Barnett has "made that transition to one of the most compelling and complex acts in R&B", and later ranked it, as did Clash, No. 1 album of the year. She then announced a world tour starting on 2 October at The Dome in Brighton, East Sussex and ending on 3 December in Orlando, Florida at The Social. That same August, Barnett was signed to London-based production company Academy Films. On 20 August, she uploaded three videos to her YouTube channel which she directed: a video titled "Wet Wipez", starring the London dance crew of the same name; a video titled "tw-ache", which is a remix of the EP1 song "Ache"; and a video for the Lucki Eck$ track "Ouch Ouch", which she produced. In September, LP1 was revealed as one of the nominees for the 2014 Mercury Prize. The same month, Barnett performed on BBC's Later... with Jools Holland. In October, "Video Girl", the third and last single from the album, was released alongside a video a few days later, as well as an advert for Google Glass which Barnett directed. She made her US television debut on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on 4 November. • Illustration — FKA twigs performing at the Laneway Festival in Sydney (2015) In 2014, producer Boots announced he was working with Barnett on her third EP. The video for "Glass & Patron", the first song released from this EP, was posted on her YouTube channel on 23 March 2015; it was directed by Barnett. In February 2015, she performed Congregata, a theatrical "coming together" and choreographed performance that visualised "the story of my life while making this album" at the Roundhouse in Camden, London. On 15 May, on her Instagram account, she posted a picture of men posing with jackets on that had an image of Barnett's face from the "Papi Pacify" video with Barnett captioning the pic "coming soon... It's just because I'm mixed race. When I first released music and no one knew what I looked like, I would read comments like: 'I've never heard anything like this before, it's not in a genre.' And then my picture came out six months later, now she's an R&B singer. I share certain sonic threads with classical music; my song 'Preface' is like a hymn. So let's talk about that. If I was white and blonde and said I went to church all the time, you'd be talking about the 'choral aspect'. But you're not talking about that because I'm a mixed-race girl from south London. The first singers who influenced Barnett were Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, and Marvin Gaye. When she started composing songs, she wanted to reproduce music she liked: "every bit of music that I made sounded like a pastiche of Siouxsie and the Banshees or Adam Ant. But through that I discovered myself." In an interview after being shortlisted for the 2014 Mercury Prize, Barnett cited Germfree Adolescents by X-Ray Spex as her favourite album of all time.

Barnett had surgery to remove fibroid tumours from her uterus in December 2017. She described her experience as "living with a fruit bowl of pain every day" and saluted the bravery of other women living with the condition. In 2020, she adopted a vegan diet after discovering the consumption of animal products was likely exacerbating the symptoms of her condition.

Barnett began dating English actor Robert Pattinson in 2014, and they became engaged before ending their relationship in mid-2017. After her interracial relationship with Robert Pattinson became public in 2014, Barnett denounced the hate speech and racist comments reportedly written by Pattinson's fans on her Twitter profile, stating in September of the same year that she felt "genuinely shocked and disgusted at the amount of racism that has been infecting my [Twitter] account". Barnett met American actor Shia LaBeouf on the set of the film Honey Boy, and they dated from mid-2018 to mid-2019. She filed a lawsuit against him at Los Angeles Superior Court in December 2020, accusing him of sexual battery, assault, and infliction of emotional distress during their relationship. In his response, LaBeouf stated he had been "abusive" to himself and those around him "for years" and that he was "ashamed" and "sorry to those [he] hurt". He later denied all allegations made by Barnett. The lawsuit was expected to proceed to trial in September 2025. A joint settlement was reached in July 2025, and lawyers maintained that details would be confidential. From 2020 to 2022, Barnett was in a relationship with English musician Matty Healy of the band the 1975. She provided the background vocals for the 1975's song "If You're Too Shy (Let Me Know)", and their relationship inspired Healy to write the song "I'm in Love with You". As of 2023, Barnett is in a relationship with director and photographer Jordan Hemingway.

In 2022, Barnett signed the Musicians For Palestine pledge, refusing to perform in Israel following the 2021 Israel–Palestine crisis. Barnett promoted a campaign by Sistah Space encouraging people to lobby their local MP to support Valerie's Law, which would introduce mandatory training for the police and other agencies when dealing with domestic abuse against Black women and girls. In April 2024, Barnett testified before the United States Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, calling for regulations on deepfakes and artificial intelligence. In July 2024, Barnett was one of the performers for the Artists for Aid Benefit Concert in London which raised funds for the Gaza Strip and Sudan.

• Magdalene Tour (2019) • Eusexua Tour (2025) • Body High Tour (2026)

Key • Denotes productions that have not yet been released

• Year — Title — Role — Notes • 2022 — RuPaul's Drag Race UK — Herself — Guest judge Series 4; Episode: "Yass-tonbury Festival"

• Title — Year — Artist(s) — Director(s) — Ref. References • "Traktor" — 2010 — Wretch 32 — Ben Newman • "Do It like a Dude" — Jessie J — Emil Nava • "Price Tag" — 2011 • "You Need Me, I Don't Need You" — Ed Sheeran • "Yeah Right" — Dionne Bromfield • "Time to Dance" — 2012 — The Shoes — Daniel Wolfe

FKA twigs was born on 16 January 1988 in Cheltenham.

• LP1 (2014) • Magdalene (2019) • Eusexua (2025) • Eusexua Afterglow (2025)