FKA Twigs

Early life[edit]

Tahliah Debrett Barnett^[8] was born on 16 January 1988^[8][9] in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire,^[10] the only child of an English mother who was a dancer and gymnast and a Jamaican father who was a musician.^[11] She has Spanish ancestry from her mother’s side of the family.^[12] She was raised by her mother and stepfather, whom she described as a "jazz fanatic of English, Spanish, Jamaican, and Egyptian descent",^[13] and did not meet her biological father until she was 18.^[12][14][15] Barnett grew up in Cheltenham, a spa town she described as being "kind of in the middle of nowhere".^[11] She attended St Edward's School, a private co-educational Catholic school.^[16][17] Her education at the school was funded by an academic scholarship.^[18] From a young age, she undertook opera and ballet lessons and took part in several St Edward's School productions.^[19]


At age 16, Barnett started making music in youth clubs.^[15] At age 17, she moved to South London to pursue a career as a dancer,^[20] and enrolled at the BRIT School.^[21] After changing her focus from dance to music, she transferred to Croydon College to pursue an education in fine arts.^[14] 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.^[22] She was a backup dancer for Jessie J in her 2010 video for "Do It like a Dude",^[23] and appeared again in her 2011 video for "Price Tag".^[24] She appeared in the video for Dionne Bromfield's song "Yeah Right".^[25] In 2011, she appeared in a two-minute BBC comedy sketch titled Beyoncé Wants Groceries,^[26] as a backup dancer.^[23] 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".^[12] For a time, she worked as a hostess in a strip club^[27] and sang periodically at The Box Soho in Soho.^[14]