Despite Eusexua and Eusexua Afterglow coming out in 2025, it’s apparent that 2026 is the Year of FKA Twigs. For not only did she at last get some major artistic credit in the form of a Grammy win earlier this year (specifically, for Best Dance/Electronic Album), but she also received ample praise for her Coachella adaptation of the Body High Tour. A tour that also found itself in major arenas like Madison Square Garden, where Twigs delivered an emotional speech about how, “I’ve honestly been told, I’ve been told that this isn’t for me. This isn’t for me, that Madison Square Garden isn’t for me.” But then, lo and behold, she sold out the venue, even though she was also told, “‘Oh it’s fine, you can just take half the floor and we can block off the top so no one will know.’ And look.” Yes, look, indeed. Twigs managed to not only sell out arenas, but ultimately triumph over the many logistical pratfalls that befell the Eusexua Tour last year. Not least of which were the visa entry denials that led her to cancel her already scant North American tour dates shortly before they were slated to kick off.
This included her performance at Coachella. Which is why her return to that stage in 2026 to make up for the glory she missed last year was so poignant. As it was for her to have chosen this moment to release “On Your Mind” featuring Lil Yachty. A song she began working on, as she tells it, “after a long dance rehearsal when I had found out that my previous manager and production team had not got me visas in time to go to Coachella and complete my headline EUSEXUA USA tour. I stayed late in the dance studio manically practicing in the hopes that the news was not true, and in denial that somehow I would still make it across the sea to perform for my amazing and loyal fans if I just practiced a bit more. It never ceases to amaze me how pain can manifest into the hardest and most euphoric sonics. I think making songs like this keeps me on my toes and reminds me that I am not in control.” But rather, “the muse” is. And, in the wake of the visa debacle, She saw fit to bestow Twigs with an absolute banger as recompense for the embarrassment she was to suffer for having to cancel her tour so abruptly (garnering such comments as “FLOPSEXUA”).
To that point, in many regards, it’s as if Twigs is talking to herself (sort of like Ellie Goulding on “Black Prada Dress”) when she says, “All the ways that you are, never seem to be the same/How you move, how you are, never’s gonna get you far/I say they won’t forget you even through the ups and downs/And if you think they can forget you, dance your way out.” It’s Lil Yachty’s opening verse, however, that speaks to Twigs’ frame of mind when she was given the news. Case in point, Lil Yachty lamenting, “At twenty-five, I lost faith in Jesus/Why would He give me a heart to break it in pieces?/Been crossed so many times, can’t wait my turn.” He then goes on to repeat, “Let it burn,” as if echoing Twigs’ final sentiments regarding watching the vision she had for the Eusexua Tour crumble all around her like a burning building.
That’s when the thumping beat really takes off, with production by DJH (a.k.a. DJ Heroin) making this track a strong candidate for being played at Berghain. Along with the fast-paced choreography (inimitable though it may be) Twigs offers up being at least slightly “riffed on” throughout various European dance floors. Said choreo being offered in an accompanying visual filmed in a no-frills dance studio, with Twigs’ fellow dancers consisting of Edson Soares Da Silva Junior, Jaxon Willard, James Vu Anh Pham, Emiliano Jimenez, Pablo Boni, Izzac Carroll and Juju Schultz Silva.
And it’s their synchronized movements, choreographed by Blake Wood and Zacc Milne, that heighten the frenetic, tense (yet also tension-releasing) nature of this single. One that Twigs chose to debut at her June 8th Paris show for the Body High Tour at Adidas Arena. Perhaps only too appropriate considering the choreo for the video appears to have been filmed in a French dance studio (namely, Feeling Dance). And, apart from that, Twigs generally seems to vibe with Paris, often returning to the city for her tours and fashion-related pursuits. Besides that, who but the French can better understand such existential dread as, “I could feel it from the start/Why won’t you start dancing? Is there something on your mind?”
It’s a direct reference to Twigs knowing, perhaps even before she got the confirmation that her visas were denied, that something wasn’t right. Worse still, that it was all going to go quite wrong. And, in reference to the production team she blamed when the tour cancellations were first brought up, it seems the lyrics, “All the ways that you are, never seem to be the same/How you move, how you are, never’s gonna get you far” could also apply to them as well.
But when applied to her own bodily movements, it seems that Twigs is determined to prove just the opposite as she and her backup crew dance their asses off to this expert-level choreo (in other words, let’s just say it’s not exactly “TikTok-friendly” in that it’s not simple enough for the average person [a.k.a. non-dancer] to emulate à la the “Apple” dance). Perhaps some of the choreo is Twigs recreating what she was doing on the night in question when she started dancing to block out reality. That self-command to “do it hard” (to quote Twigs herself) stemming from a combination of rage and the desire to prove that she would still triumph in the end. And now, she’s done so not only with the release of this track, but also by being sure to mention “my previous manager and production team” in the caption. “My previous manager and production team.” As in, she presumably booted them after the visa fiasco (though there are some “conspiracy theorists” who still think Twigs herself pulled that out of nowhere as an excuse to cancel).
And so, she leaves it to Lil Yachty to speak on those enraged feelings more freely, allowing him to round out the song with the verse, “Too much on my mind, let it burn/Alls my life, had to fight, back up against the window/Retaliation into spite, move around like Soprano/Itchin’, every day’s the weekend, wish I woke up peakin’/I might say the worst thing, I can’t hear a reason.” It’s the latter line that Twigs lends her vocals to in harmony with Lil Yachty (almost slightly recalling how Andre 3000 and Gwen Stefani sound together on “Long Way to Go”) before he continues, “Judgin’ me, but truth be told, I’m no worse than your deacon/I might trade it all for this one Egyptian/While my eyes rollin’, I can hear you snifflin’/Tears fallin’ down your face while my feelings missin’.” Here, too, the verse can apply from a twofold perspective: Twigs speaking to her former team or her speaking from their presumed perspective when they, from her vantage point, ignored her pain in the aftermath of the tour date cancellations.
However one interprets it, Twigs was sure to inform her Twiglets, “…it feels like the perfect time to release [this song] in celebration of what as artists we can overcome when we believe in ourselves and others believe in us. I feel so full, thank you for coming to see BODY HIGH, thank you for continuing to grow with me. Thank you for what we are building next. Everything happens for a reason and my reason for making music and art will always be you xxx.” So whatever is on one’s mind, surely they can put it aside for three minutes and thirty-eight seconds to, that’s right, start dancing to this song.
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