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Singer-Songwriter Self Esteem Talks the Road to ‘A Complicated Woman’ and Her Daring New Live Show

Rebecca Lucy Taylor, also known as pop hero Self Esteem, reflects on her new album, growing fame and signing to a major label.

(“That was the most ‘me’ thing ever.”) Leaving the following year’s Mercury Prize ceremony – which was already hastily rescheduled following the passing of Queen Elizabeth II – empty-handed, meanwhile, was “another ‘no, not quite you’ moment.’” When asked in a subsequent Standard interview about what she collects for a hobby, Taylor playfully responded: “Awards you get for being nominated for something, but not quite winning them.” Prioritise Pleasure, with its big, ambitiously constructed choruses that contextualized vivid emotional flashpoints in Taylor’s life, was met with unanimously glowing reviews, leading to its author being subjected immediately to weighty predictions about her future. There are many jobs, too, that comprise her career – she’s also a West End actress ( Cabaret), video director, theatre composer ( Prima Facie), panelist, radio host, TV personality – to the point that it feels like she’s hardly disappeared since her last record.

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