The Artist
From punk princess to cult stage actress, Toyah Willcox is a uniquely gifted performer and an inextinguishable flame. Charismatic, outspoken and impossible to categorise, she is one of Britain’s beloved household names – an award-winning rock legend as well as a much-loved stage/screen actress and music composer. Toyah has amassed thirteen top 40 singles, recorded twenty-five albums, written two books, appeared in over forty stage plays, acted in over twenty feature films and presented hundreds of television programmes. Toyah released a new studio reworking of her album In The Court Of The Crimson Queen in April 2019 which charted in the UK Top 20 physical albums chart, Top 10 Scottish album chart and overall Top 75 UK album chart.
The Painting
‘CRY ME A RIVER’
“I have always found that the most absurd lyrics strike the deepest emotional chord. It is physically impossible to cry a river, but if we could we would have no droughts anywhere in the world because one thing all humans do is cry! Yet I have cried many rivers over broken trust, broken friendships and many years ago I cried rivers over teenage break ups. I found doing this painting so much fun, I put the brushes down and did the work with my fingers directly into the paint on my palette and the ghosts of my past where exorcised.”
‘THE ROSE’
“This is a song I first heard around the late 90’s and it took my breath away. I had to sing it on a TV programme called Songs Of Praise and I found the lyrics intensely clever, as if they evolved out of having therapy for a few years! If you are afraid to love because nothing lasts forever then you are afraid to live. My rose is in the process of decay, knowing it will return because at the heart of the rose are the seeds of potential.”
‘BENEATH MY FEET’
“This is a totally original lyric by me! Slightly inspired by “I’d Like To Teach The World To Sing” as well as the New York artist Jean-Michel Basquiat’s graffiti style on the canvass. I am a lyricist and it felt right to create a rhyme about our benign presence on earth and that our capacity for love will save the planet. Because of the nature of media in the present day, it is easy to forget that humans are at their best when being loving. Family is love and family comes in all variations. Relationships and trust build a better world and the” planet benefits from our presence when we are allowed to be a positive force.” Toyah
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