We caught up with FKA Twigs during a brief moment of respite for the British artist as she was deep in rehearsals in London, preparing for her “Body High” tour.
Despite her tireless work over the past few weeks, FKA Twigs, born Tahliah Debrett Barnett, was full of energy and was excited to discuss her upcoming show at Chicago’s Wintrust Arena. She promised those attending the show that she had hopefully “created something that fans have never seen before.”
FKA Twigs, known for hits such as “Tears in the Club,” “Home With You” and “Two Weeks,” and for her collaborations with The Weeknd, Future and A$AP Rocky, describes her upcoming tour as her own version of Cirque du Soleil. Capturing her unique essence, she looks to breathe new life into her music and showcase her personality.
“All of my music displays different parts of my personality. We have the sensuality and broken, raw beats of ‘LP1,’ the renaissance opera of ‘MAGDALENE’ and the whole ‘Eusexua’ dance world, which feels incredibly generous and all-encompassing,” FKA Twigs said. “It’s a 360 of everything I have done so far. It feels like, for the first time in my career, this is a show that has every part of me in it.”
The upcoming tour follows the 2025 releases of both “Eusexua” and “Eusexua Afterglow.” The album title comes from a self-coined phrase by the artist, which refers to the “pinnacle of human experience” — a feeling of pure presence or a moment of nothingness.
“Eusexua” showcases the artist’s versatility with an electronic album that is a love letter to club culture.
“The amazing thing about dance music is that it’s so communal. It’s not about me, and it’s about everybody. It’s about the conversation between me and my fans, just like dance music or techno is a conversation between the DJ and the people on the dance floor,” said FKA Twigs. “It’s this symbiotic conversation through movement and energy that is fascinating and really beautiful. I’m an artist who thrives off community. For as much as community and culture have fed me, all I want to do is give back and put charge back inside it.”
“Eusexua” also has a strong connection with Chicago, as FKA Twigs started to research house music. She was surprised to find it was pioneered by Black and LGBTQ+ communities in underground clubs in Chicago in the late ‘70s.
“I had to educate myself on techno and house music and look at the people from my own community that came before me and laid the groundwork. I was brought up on jazz, Latin American music, and then in my teens, dancehall and (Jamaican) bashment, and that was the stuff I was discovering when I was young. It’s been amazing, at my age, to still be learning about music and be humbled by knowledge and have such respect for the people that came before me,” FKA Twigs said.
FKA Twigs recently picked up her first-ever Grammy at this year’s ceremony for best dance/electronic album for “Eusexua.” A month later, the artist was still struggling to find the words to describe the feeling of winning the award. She remarked that it “reinforced why she wanted to be an artist” as she achieved success both commercially and critically without compromising her integrity.
“It has reinforced why I started this because sometimes I can get confused with all of the auxiliary requirements of online, press or staying relevant. It’s reaffirmed that all artists have to do is make solid and meaningful work. Not everyone has to get it, but if you’re telling the truth, then other people will find solace and a sense of belonging in your truth,” said FKA Twigs. “This is just building a community with people who find companionship in your truth of the way that you make art. That is beautiful. That is ‘Eusexua.’ That is the pinnacle of the human experience, which is where all of this began.”
Alongside her music career, FKA Twigs has delved into the world of acting in recent years. The multihypenate made her feature film debut in the 2019 drama “Honey Boy” and went on to star in the 2024 remake of the cult classic “The Crow” alongside Bill Skarsgård and in the Nicolas Cage-led movie “The Carpenter’s Son.”
“When I act, it makes me look deeper inside of myself. It’s something that I’m very new to and it’s daunting that people know me for one thing and then being vulnerable and stepping into something completely different and having to learn in front of everyone. It makes me feel vulnerable, but I love feeling vulnerable. Vulnerability is really sexy and vital to the human experience,” said FKA Twigs.
FKA Twigs will also be starring alongside Anne Hathaway and Michaela Coel in the A24 psychological thriller, “Mother Mary,” in cinemas in April. She plays a mystic in the David Lowery-directed movie.
The story follows a pop star named Mother Mary who abandons her tour due to an existential crisis. FKA Twigs said she understood how certain aspects of fame, especially going from extremes of loneliness to overexposure, can affect the human psyche.
“That’s something that I go through myself. I either have 100 people touching me and I’m in the eye of the storm or I’m alone in my bedroom with no makeup on and it’s complete silence. Then, the next day, you hear the roaring of the crowd and then you’re by yourself in the shower.”
Adam Davidson is a freelance writer.
If you go
“Body High” tour with Tokischa at 8 p.m. March 26 at Wintrust Arena, 200 E. Cermak Road; wintrustarena.com