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Pole dance, martial arts voguing: Numéro went to FKA twigs’ concert in Paris
A new takeoff just happened for FKA twigs with Eusexua Afterglow. HEr album was conceived as the direct sequel to Eusexua, released in January 2025 and nominated for “Best Dance/Electronic Album” at the 2026 Grammy Awards. On June 8th, 2026, the British singer performed at the Adidas Arena in Paris. There, she put on a show that confirmed her status on today’s musical scene.
By Alexis Thibault,
and Ambra Flora.
Published on 17 November 2025. Updated on 10 June 2026.
Eusexua Afterglow, an after party album crafted by FKA twigs
With her new album, Eusexua Afterglow (2025), British singer-songwriter, producer, and dancer FKA twigs delivers a fourth studio album fully calibrated for the afterparty. Eleven new electronic bursts extend the rave initiated by Eusexua, a record released last January and nominated for “Best Dance/Electronic Album” at the 2026 Grammy Awards. With forty minutes of conscious trance, this work stands out as a blazing record, a plunge into the post-party glow, into the pale light of the club’s dawn. The album continues the erotic exploration of its predecessor, translating the emotions that arise in the wake of the storm – the rave. And it feels like a prolonged ecstasy.
This sci-fi techno album flirts with the avant-garde pop so dear to the 37-year-old performer and taps into the full potential of contemporary electronic production. At times, one can almost hear the laments of an artificial intelligence facing its own desire, crashing into grainy bass lines and streaming synthetic layers. Highlights include Sushi – one of the best tracks of the year – Touch A Girl, Stéréo Boy – which features vocals reminiscent of Björk – and Wild and Alone, a duet with PinkPantheress.
A truly erotic record
FKA twigs has never treated desire as a mere motif. LP1 (2014) already championing a cyberpunk R’n’B crafted with Arca and visually shaped by Jesse Kanda. There, sensuality seemed to press against the skin, ready to burst out into the world. With M3LL155X (2015), she immediately turned that energy into a manifesto, flipping the gaze on the female body to make it a tool of empowerment.
In 2019, Magdalene took this dramaturgy even further, blending pain and ecstasy in a single breath. Eusexua Afterglow follows in that lineage. Eroticism here is no longer symbolic. It becomes a raw material, from lyrics to sounds – breath, piercing percussion, synths evoking bodies making love.
The term Eusexua itself, which she links to that moment of transcendent clarity just before orgasm, captures this shift toward a more intense sensuality. Here, FKA twigs shapes desire like one might polish a relic.
A disconcerting album promotion
While the album is a success, its promotion unfolded in strange and chaotic way. Shortly after the release of Eusexua, the singer teased a deluxe version. She revealed new tracks, then announced that she was “pregnant” with a new album, Afterglow, during a festival in the Netherlands on August 16th, 2025. And then, everything spiraled. It turned out this wasn’t a deluxe version at all, but a completely new body of work featuring eleven previously unreleased tracks.
At the same time, she uploaded a new version of Eusexua, where four original songs were replaced with new ones, including a remix featuring American artist Eartheater. In the end, Eusexua Afterglow premiered in Paris during Fashion Week… Even in her marketing, the British artist does things entirely her own way.
That was certainly confirmed on June 8th, 2026. The mesmerizing performer took over the Adidas Arena in Paris, as part of her international Body High Tour, which will end on June 12th, 2026. American experimental producer Yves Tumor was her opening act.
FKA twigs in concert in Paris
In the Parisian venue, fans paid tribute to the star’s eccentricity with red hair, mullets, mohicans, shaved heads and piercings. At 9 pm, the lights went down, leaving only a halo illuminating FKA twigs lying down on a white bed.
The stripped-back melody of Mirrored Heart (2019) rose against a backdrop of scaffolding. She was then joined on Meta Angel (2022) by dancer James Vu Anh Pham, one of her choreographers, who also accompanied her on clarinet for Home With You (2019) and later at the piano. From the very start of the show, FKA twigs displayed a remarkable sense of harmony with her dancers.
The artist then performed twenty songs, drawn mainly from Eusexua and Eusexua Afterglow, as well as Magdalene (2019) and Caprisongs (2022). Moving effortlessly between ethereal melodies and club-ready anthems, she combined dance, singing, pole dancing, voguing and martial arts.
A show blending pole dance, voguing and martial arts
During Room of Fools (2025), she rides across the stage on the back of one of her dancers. Then, for Striptease (2025), the dance crew gradually undress together. During Home With You (2019), the synchronicity between FKA twigs and her dancers is so precise that they become a living Rorschach test, forming a hypnotic kaleidoscope of bodies. In one of the interludes, two dancers embrace to create a tableau reminiscent of William Bouguereau’s painting Dante and Virgil.
Later in the show, the singer invited some of the leading figures of Paris’s ballroom scene onto the stage. Dancer Giselle Palmer appeared alongside the House of Revlon collective and Riyley Revlon, a key figure in French voguing who had been warming up the crowd before the performance. Two weeks earlier, that same collective performed with Aya Nakamura at the Stade de France.
A tribute to her fans since 2013
Among the most powerful moments of the Paris concert was FKA twigs’ heartfelt message to her fans. “I wanted to take a moment to tell you what this tour means to me. There have been so many times in my life when I was ‘body low,’ and you’d ask me, ‘What is this album? Is this another tour?’ The truth is, I think we’re building something together — a community, a commitment to ourselves, to culture. A commitment to feel free, to not judge ourselves, to express ourselves however we want, to dress how we want, be whoever we want, and love whoever we want. Body High is all of that. And I want to thank you, because you helped me create it. It’s such a beautiful journey.”
Two images that will stay with us are FKA twigs, draped in feathers, performing Cellophane while artificial snow fell behind her, as well as her breathtaking pole-dance sequence.
Eusexua Afterglow (2025) by FKA twigs, available now.
