FKA twigs

FKA twigs Bio

Tahliah Debrett Barnett (born 16 January 1988), known professionally as FKA twigs, is an English singer, songwriter, record producer, actor, and dancer. After training in dance and moving to South London to pursue performance, she began releasing music in 2012 with EP1 and gained wide recognition with her debut studio album LP1 (2014), which earned a Mercury Prize nomination. Her work blends electronic, R&B, trip hop, and avant-pop elements and is noted for experimental production, choreography, and striking visual direction.

Subsequent releases include the EP M3LL155X (2015), Magdalene (2019), and the mixtape Caprisongs (2022). Her third and fourth studio albums, Eusexua and Eusexua Afterglow, were released in 2025. At the 68th Annual Grammy Awards, Eusexua received the award for Best Dance/Electronic Album. Barnett is acclaimed for her genre-bending sound and interdisciplinary approach to music and performance.

Early Life and Background

Tahliah Debrett Barnett was born on 16 January 1988 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. She is the only child of an English mother who was a dancer and gymnast and a Jamaican father who was a musician, and 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, with her education 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, laying the foundation for her later pivot from dance to songwriting.

Path to Music

At age 17, Barnett 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, writing songs such as I’m Your Doll and producing a large number of early 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, and appeared in Jessie J’s videos for Do It like a Dude (2010) and Price Tag (2011). She also worked for a time as a hostess in a strip club and sang periodically at the Box Soho in the City of Westminster. She became known as Twigs for the way her joints crack, later adding the letters FKA after another act called the Twigs asked her to change her stage name.

FKA twigs Career

Early Career (2012-2013)

In 2012, Barnett was photographed for the cover of i-D magazine. She self-released her music debut, EP1, on Bandcamp on 4 December 2012, posting 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, and The Guardian profiled her as the UK’s best example to date of ethereal, twisted R&B.

Her second extended play, EP2, was released through the Young Turks record label in September 2013 and was produced by Barnett and Arca. In December, she was nominated for the BBC’s Sound of 2014 prize and was chosen by Spotify for their Spotlight on 2014 list, and was featured on Billboard’s 14 Artists to Watch in 2014.

Breakthrough (2014-2017)

In April 2014, Barnett appeared on the cover of The Fader for its 91st issue. Her debut studio album, LP1, was released on 6 August through the record label Young Turks. The album received widespread critical acclaim, reached number 16 on the UK Albums Chart and number 30 on the US Billboard 200, and was nominated for the 2014 Mercury Prize. She then announced a world tour beginning on 2 October at The Dome in Brighton, East Sussex.

In 2015, she performed Congregata, a theatrical choreographed piece at the Roundhouse in Camden, London, and released the EP M3LL155X, which was accompanied by four videos directed by Barnett. In 2016, she debuted a new song and music video titled Good to Love, which had premiered earlier during her seven-day residency Soundtrack 7 at Manchester International Festival in July 2015. She also directed, narrated, and starred in a television ad for Nike, and danced in Apple’s advertisement for HomePod.

Notable Works and Milestones

LP1 (2014) established Barnett as one of the most compelling and complex acts in contemporary R&B, ranking on multiple year-end critics’ lists. The follow-up EP M3LL155X (2015) extended her reputation for bold visual storytelling, and her second studio album Magdalene (2019) received universal critical acclaim, ranking number 1 on four year-end lists. Her mixtape Caprisongs (2022) marked her first release under Atlantic Records, and her 2025 album Eusexua won the Grammy Award for Best Dance/Electronic Album.

FKA twigs Award Nominations

FKA twigs has earned several high-profile nominations across her career. Her debut studio album LP1 was nominated for the 2014 Mercury Prize, and she was nominated for the BBC’s Sound of 2014 prize. She has additionally received multiple nominations at the UK Music Video Awards, including four nominations for the 2020 ceremony.

FKA twigs Awards Won

Among her most celebrated recognitions, FKA twigs was awarded Godlike Genius at the 2022 BandLab NME Awards. At the 68th Annual Grammy Awards, her studio album Eusexua received the award for Best Dance/Electronic Album, cementing her standing as a leading voice in electronic music.

FKA twigs Family

Barnett was raised by her mother and stepfather in Cheltenham, and did not meet her biological father until she was 18. She has cited her mother’s dance background and her stepfather’s love of jazz as formative influences during her upbringing.

Personal Life

Barnett began a relationship with English actor Robert Pattinson in 2014, becoming engaged before ending the relationship in mid-2017. She later dated American actor Shia LaBeouf from mid-2018 to mid-2019, and was in a relationship with English musician Matty Healy of the band The 1975 from 2020 to 2022. As of 2023, she is in a relationship with director and photographer Jordan Hemingway. In December 2017, Barnett had surgery to remove fibroid tumours from her uterus, and in 2020 she adopted a vegan diet after discovering that animal products were likely worsening her symptoms.