Tahliah Debrett Barnett (born 16 January 1988), known professionally as FKA Twigs (stylized as FKA twigs), is a British singer, songwriter, and dancer. Born and raised in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, she became a backup dancer for numerous famous musicians after moving to London at the age of 17, and made her own musical debut with EP1 (2012).

Barnett’s debut studio album, LP1 (2014), reached number 16 on the UK Albums Chart and number 30 on the US Billboard 200. It was also nominated for that year’s Mercury Prize. She then released the EP M3LL155X (2015) and took a four-year hiatus, after which she released her second studio album, Magdalene (2019). After signing with Atlantic Records, she released the mixtape Caprisongs (2022). Her work has consistently garnered acclaim and has been described as “genre-bending”, drawing on various genres including electronic music, trip hop, R&B, and avant-garde.

Tahliah Debrett Barnett was born on 16 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. Her mother also has Spanish ancestry. She was raised by her mother and stepfather, whom she described as a “jazz fanatic of English, Spanish, Jamaican, and Egyptian descent”, and did not meet her biological father until she was 18. Barnett grew up in Cheltenham and later described it as being “kind of in the middle of nowhere”. She attended St Edward’s School, a private co-educational Catholic school for ages 11 to 18. Her education at the school was funded by an academic scholarship. 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. 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”. She also appeared in the video for Dionne Bromfield’s song “Yeah Right”. In 2011, she appeared in a two-minute BBC comedy sketch titled Beyoncé Wants Groceries, in which she was a backup dancer in a supermarket. 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 called “really bad demos”. For a time, she worked as a hostess in a strip club and also sang periodically at The Box in Soho.

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 initialism 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: “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”, it was 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’s 14 Artists to Watch in 2014.

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 then directed and guest-starred in the music video for “Ouch Ouch” by rapper Lucki Eck$; she also 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 (now Young). 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, #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.