Paloma Faith worries about how ageing will affect career in music industry that ‘worships youth’
Paloma Faith has expressed concern about the future of her music career “in an industry that worships youth”.
The 42-year-old “Only Love Can Hurt Like This” singer reflected on “the pressure to be slim and young looking” in an industry that tends to disregard women musicians as they get older.
Speaking in an interview with the i, the singer, who recently released her new memoir, MILF, said she cried when Madonna made her 2016 Billboard Awards speech in which the “Vogue” singer argued “the most controversial thing I’ve done is to stick around”.
Faith said she was “torn between my ideology and my reality. They scream and battle against each other just as Madonna’s probably did”.
“Ideologically I’d like to age naturally and be seen as beautiful and sexy and cool,” she said, explaining that the reality for women musicians is much harsher.
“But, in this industry, I do feel the pressure to be slim and young looking. Luckily because I’ve never been a hedonist and look relatively young anyway I’ve not done very much beyond occasional micro needling.”
Faith, who is a single mother to two daughters, said she’s lucky enough to afford childcare and other help, but wondered about how her financial situation would look in the future, especially if her music career started to dry up.
“I may need to do whatever it takes to keep looking young,” she said of her future financial situation.
“My mum warned me that I’ll probably have to deal with looking older when I get to 45/46. It’s a dilemma I haven’t faced yet,” she continued. “I’ve got three years to work out what I’m going to do!”
The singer recently released her new album The Glorification of Sadness followed by her new memoir MILF, which both explore her 2023 breakup with Leyman Lahcine, her partner of 10 years and the father of her two daughters, who were aged five, and seven months at the time.
Faith often shares her frank views on being a parent, and said earlier this month that she believes fathers should not be “over-complimented or applauded for simply being a parent”.
She added that she does not like the phrase “co-parent” as it “implies it is 50/50 and I don’t believe it is”.
She elaborated further: “I’m very lucky to be on very good terms with my ex. We still love to talk and we’re parenting well together. Although I think the term ‘co-parenting’ tends to hide the silent load carried by most mothers.”
