'I had to prove my family's sacrifice was worth it': How pop writer Shygirl made her way to the top

Admired by Madonna and Charli xcx and blossoming by finding true love, London branched out into rock and broke the mainstream. He explains how his working class upbringing made him very fearless. Leaving important things to chance is not the Sheigirl's style. First aid kit, radio, batteries: Early this morning, the reader filled her online shopping cart in preparation for an impending disaster. He is reading a news article

Leaving important things to chance is not the Shaygirl's style. First aid kit, radio, batteries: Early this morning, the reader filled her online shopping cart in preparation for an impending disaster. He had read a news article that advised families to prepare an emergency kit. "That's the kind of person I am," he says with a grin. She woke up her boyfriend who was sleeping in the bed next to her. "I was like, 'Honey, we're sorted! I've got water purification tablets, everything!'

It's a September afternoon in East London and the singer, whose real name is Belen Moyes, introduces himself as "Shy" and walks into the booth opposite me in an Italian trattoria. He first burst onto the club scene in 2016 with the devilish, throbbing Want More, and in the decade since, the singer, rapper, and DJ has applied the same rigor to his career as his emergency preparation, going from underground cult artist to rising pop star, opening arenas for Beyoncé and Charli xcx, and winning 2 recent awards at Moboon, and winning 2 awards at Mobo4 in 2013. Confessions II – The Movie That In it he shared a toilet stall with Arca and Richard E. Grant.

She has also made the difficult transition to fall in love and enter into a long-term relationship, the subject of her second album, Swallow! is An epic, soaring rock record, with more than a touch of William Orbit-era Madonna, it's an ode to intimacy, vulnerability and mutual devotion. He says that love is "scary, exciting and big". This 33-year-old young man has found a new form of exciting expression, a special combination of hard and soft, of brash profanity, blunt humor and slippery feminine desire.

In December 2022, Shygirl was preparing to go on tour. His debut album Nymph had received positive reviews and he was finally making enough money from music to rent his own place. "I felt good about the reception, but there's always that anti-climatic feeling when you get what you want. You're like, 'OK, I've got it now. Now what?' she says, tossing her tangerine cork rings. Then I met George.

Go, I say, tell me the story. "It was in Raya," he says conspiratorially. He was hungover from a night out while browsing the members-only dating app. When they matched, he asked her to send a voice note: "I don't like meeting people unless I can hear their voice and their song." Razi invited him to watch one of his favorite movies, "Alien". He's right: "Then we got a Thai takeout and we hooked up."

He left for Australia later that week, but they talked for almost two months. When he decided to extend his trip and include a trip to Japan, "I was like, 'Screw it. Do you want to come to Tokyo?' He flew her out "in economy," she laughs, and she and actor George Smale have been together ever since. "We had 10 days there and another date in London before I came back to say 'I love you'." By summer, they went home together. Unlike previous relationships, Omi says, "I didn't feel like I was suddenly so infatuated with someone that I didn't know where I was standing."

That satisfaction and peace was a source of inspiration. "When I made Lucky, I sat in a room with a microphone. I didn't write anything down, I just felt it," he says of the album's lead single. "I say: I'm an active participant because of the choices that got me here." Like many songs on Swallow!, Lucky[Hymn] is a stand-alone song. "It had more of a classical tone because I felt like I was in the classical part of my life," he says.

With its dreamy and soulless guitars and melodious drums, Swallow! It's a different sound for an artist whose previous records have flirted with hyperpop, UK garage and electronica. As a millennial, Shygirl came of age when guitar-driven pop dominated the charts. "It was very prevalent in all the pop I grew up listening to: Kane, Madonna, random stuff like Rasmus," he says. In the 2010s, when he was a teenager, discovering music was amazing: "We had HMV, where you could walk in and put headphones in." He says his curiosity was encouraged by his parents. "I don't come from a family where they just answer to you."

The eldest of three children, Shaygerl was born to young parents in south-east London and spent her early years between Downham, Catford and Leigh Green. "My life has shown me that you are never right," he says. "You can deserve but not receive." When has he felt like this? "I grew up with this experience. My parents worked really hard. They didn't have everything."

His father, originally from Grenada, worked for the British Government's Welsh Office and later as a club promoter at Notting Hill. He worked at night. She didn't see her much, she says: "My mother worked as a cleaner, a toilet attendant, a waitress, a dinner lady. "He's always had a job." So is Shaigirl, who as a teenager worked at a restaurant her mother managed.

Her parents are no longer together, though she is quick to explain that her childhood was a happy one. "I didn't ask for anything," he says. "But I'm of the opinion that if you want something, you have to go get it. If I don't, I only have myself to blame." That determination flows through new songs like Live the Life You Like, a pounding, prodigy-like anthem. "And then I push / It's not enough," he purrs.

In Amsterdam, in 2018, he booked his first show before the release of his debut EP, Cruel Practice. "I was like, 'I don't even have any outside music, and somebody's taking a chance on me,'" he recalls. Soon after, she submitted her notice as a booker at a modeling agency. I want to quit a day job with vacation pay, sick pay and I want to be a musician? "But because I was already signed to a modeling agency, I knew how to raise the rate." He was negotiating requests from brands that wanted to use his music in their ads until one came in from Rihanna for Fenty Beauty, and he was more than thrilled — "not as normal as me" — to make the deal. He got a manager, the money came in, and the girl paid off her credit card. He compares himself to a gambler: "I was out of money owing two people. I owed money to my roommate for rent."

He signed a record deal in 2020. This year, he bought a house. He wasn't even interested in owning a house, "because I was too busy thinking about paying the rent and the bills. My dad doesn't have a house yet. My mom just got a house." He says that his quest to make music "has always been to make my life better than I originally was and to prove to my family that their sacrifices are worth it". But "living an experience they've never lived" has been accompanied by a dose of "insane guilt".

He played with Charli xcx and Troye Sivan at New York's Madison Square Garden while Brat Summer 2024 ran through Brat Fall. Seeing how Charlie, a peer and friend, managed to keep his composure even when things got "as big and stressful as they could" made Pop's mastery seem more attainable. Although, "we definitely have a different intention for day to day". He emphasizes that Charlie works incredibly hard. “I work hard, but I really prioritize relaxation,” she laughs.

Spending an afternoon with Shaygirl, it feels like she's something of a girly girl, as she has plenty of poise, grace and gossipy wisdom. "We're all trying to open doors for each other—all the female artists I've worked with." She says that being a woman is her biggest obstacle as an artist. "In my experience, this is the most common block right now." He cites Beyoncé's Grammy win for Best Country Album with Cowboy Carter as an example, which prompted the Recording Academy to create two separate categories for Best Country Album: Traditional and Contemporary. "Rules change and doors change," he says.

Realizing that there may be a ceiling on his ambition, a ceiling imposed on him by others, means that he is now “only interested in working with people who want to be different. Those who aren't comfortable with the status quo because I can't relate. "This is not an experience that I have had in any way in my life." And he adds that "it's usually men" who support the status quo. "I don't hate men: I love my boyfriend!"

S hygirl and Smale have also collaborated creatively. He provided the background vocals for Alyse's opener, and they've worked together on the new album's accompanying video, which he co-directed and which forms an elliptical thriller based on a kidnapping. “You're in a situation like The Bourne Ultimatum or Tell No One. You may have been an ordinary person. You are in a wonderful situation now: what are you doing? he says His character ends up tied to a chair. He says he rarely even thinks about not acting in any situation, so playing someone who is barely able to act was challenging.

But her character screams, yells, cries, and thrashes while in captivity, giving Shaygirl an outlet for emotions she didn't know she should express. "I never raise my voice," he says. "Yelling at someone who pissed you off? To show you're impressed? I'd never do that." A big girl, she describes herself as a protector who feels responsible for others in her life. "I feel like every child gets to a point where they see their parents as human beings, not just as their caretakers. That happened to me when I was very young." how young "Ten, 12." This meant that he never had an idol. "I don't really look at anybody that way," he says. "I see everyone with flaws."

In the final shot of the video, Scheigerl looks directly into the lens and acknowledges that this is a fake environment. He wanted to break the fourth wall, even if the film's plot was a bit clichéd: "Sometimes clichés are clichés for a reason, you know?"

Of course, I will add that falling in love is the biggest stereotype. "Exactly!" When you've said "I love you" to your partner a million times, he says, "You're looking for other ways to say it." Her smile is beautiful thinking about everything. Playing the new album for her boyfriend made her cry. Real's delicate and intensely vulnerable ballad allowed him to "revisit the memory of when we were in Japan and realize that we are now in love." "We always choose each other," he says, as if he can't believe his luck. "I always choose what happens in my life."

Swallow! It's out November 6 via Why Music. The Shygirl 2027 World Tour kicks off on March 13th at Columbiahalle, Berlin.