Paloma Faith: "We live in a culture where women are either considered to be victims or bitches"

“I went to five funerals last year,” Paloma Faith tells me, with a stark matter-of-factness. “It was a big year of sadness. But one of the people who died wrote a poem that said: ‘Every artist’s pain is for sale.’ That really struck a chord with me.”

She’s reflecting on the strange sensation, and timeless artistic tradition, of putting the most painful parts of your life into a song – which is then plucked from all context, as it’s blasted from speakers or screamed along to at a concert. It’s a phenomenon alluded to in the title of the London artist’s new album, The Glorification Of Sadness.

Following five previous albums that have all reached the upper rungs of the UK charts – including her acclaimed debut Do You Want The Truth Or Something Beautiful?, which turns 15 this year – the genre-transcending new LP was shaped by a time of monumental change for Paloma: following her split from her partner of nine years, and the father of her two children.

“I didn’t have any other choice,” the singer-songwriter says of The Glorification Of Sadness’s raw subject matter. “In life, quite a lot of things happen to you, that you’re completely not part of, or in control of. There were elements of that in our relationship. But part of it was all me.

“When you feel like you’re the author of your own destiny, at times that brings you great sorrow,” she continues. “So there was no choice for me, but to write about that, because it’s such an earth-shattering change. And I say earth-shattering more because there were children involved. I’ve had a lot of break-ups before, but nothing quite as horrific as this – because you feel like you’ve failed other people as well.”

Paloma, a former winner of the highly coveted British Female Solo Artist honour at the BRIT Awards – and, more recently, an unexpected TikTok sensation, thanks to the renewed popularity of 2014’s ‘Only Love Can Hurt Like This’ on the platform – has “always been direct” in her songwriting, she tells me.

“It’s just who I am as a person,” she resumes. “I’ve always written about exactly what I was going through. All my songs are pretty on the nose – but this was the first time that I’ve had a break-up in public, because this was the relationship that I was in for pretty much the entirety of my career so far. I’ve never really had to deal with, ‘Who’s she with now?’ ‘Who’s she dating?’ ‘Who’s she broken up with?’”

But The Glorification Of Sadness is also a remarkably, and genuinely, empowering record – a quality that was important to embrace not just as a pop star, but “as a feminist,” she says.

“We live in a culture where women are either considered to be victims or bitches,” she states. “There’s no space for us to inhabit any other role. Some people have commented underneath stuff about me breaking up with my partner: ‘I’m sorry he cheated on you!’ I haven’t said at any point that I was cheated on – and he actually didn’t cheat on me! But they assume that – because a woman couldn’t possibly leave a relationship unless she was beaten up or cheated on. Otherwise, she’s just a bitch. There’s men who have commented: ‘She must be a nightmare to be with. The poor guy…’ And it’s not just men who demonise women for that. Other women do it about each other as well.

“People find it threatening when a woman is empowered, or is saying, ‘I’m going to take ownership of my own happiness,’” she continues. “But I want to demonstrate to my daughters that it’s not the right thing to stay and suffer. If it means being alone, but removing myself from a sadness, then so be it. I want my kids to see that as an empowering thing.”

As well as using her powers for good in the fight against the demonisation of women, Paloma has used her platform to speak out about a variety of pressing issues, including trans rights, and the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza. She also went viral last year for her concise response to Rishi Sunak’s highly controversial Illegal Migration Bill on Twitter: “Cunt.”

“Sometimes I feel very hopeful about progress across the board,” she remarks. “But then – especially now – it feels like it was all an illusion. It’s like we’re going back and back and back, to this right-wing, 1950s attitude. Progress seems to be failing. Look at what people think is acceptable, and what people allow. There’s this apathy and inactivity for change. I just think we’re regressing.”

Back in 2021, Paloma’s BBC documentary, As I Am, delved into the impossible pressures that come with balancing stardom and motherhood. The Glorification Of Sadness, she explains, was also shaped by these topics – and specifically, “how feminism has failed us.”

“There’s this idea that feminism has reached this amazing goal – because women are employed now,” she resumes. “But it’s not complete. What we’ve ended up with is more pressure, and more expectations than ever before. We’re expected to work, and do the original expectation – which is to have kids, do housework, cooking, and all this shit.

“And to be smiling, understanding, and empathetic towards our men,” she adds. “‘You weren’t there for me!’ I’ve had men say that to me a lot. And I’m just like, ‘Of course I wasn’t – I’ve got too much to bloody do! Who’s there for me?!’ Everyone’s always talking about male mental health now – but it’s really annoying to me that no one is talking about women’s mental health.”

As if to underline her point, her children arrive home at that very moment, full of after-school chatter.

That juggling of responsibilities, as Paloma soon resumes, has also extended into the studio. Although this is the first project she’s been credited as executive producer on, she’s “always done that role, on every album,” she tells me.

“I’ve always sat with my producers and been like, ‘Can we tweak this?’ Or, ‘I want this to sound like this,’” she elaborates. “I’ve done all my backing vocal arrangements, and once the songs are complete, I go to the mix stage and make notes – like, ‘Can I have more timpani? Can I have a louder snare drum?’

“That is basically the exec producer role, and I’ve always done it,” she continues. “But nobody, because I’m a female artist, has ever gone, ‘You know what, she really should be credited for that...’ So I dug my heels in this time, and said, ‘I want credit for what I do on this record.’”

She’s also put together a strong team of collaborators on the album, including another Stoke Newington-born – though New Ross-raised – artist, Maverick Sabre.

“Liam Bailey worked a lot on this record, and he actually introduced us,” Paloma says of Maverick. “We met a few times, and we got on so well. Musically, we’re really aligned. He sings in the background of ‘Say My Name’ – which I think really makes the sound of it. He’s got a touch of Marvin Gaye about his voice, I think.”

Although Paloma’s history with Ireland runs deep, her Iveagh Gardens gig this summer is set to be her first Irish concert in over six years. Her most memorable show in this country, she recalls, felt like a wild winter’s day – despite it taking place in the middle of the summer.

“Everyone was soaked,” she tells me. “There were umbrellas for miles, and everyone was in their pac-a-macs. It got to the point where we had to move the set, and all of our instruments, back like two metres, because it was getting rained on.

“But I remember feeling so ecstatic about the crowd,” she adds. “Because nobody cared! Everyone just acted like it was a sunny day. It bowled me over, really. The attitude of everyone in Dublin is always electric, and everyone knows how to have a good time – so I know it’s always going to be a guaranteed brilliant show, and really life-affirming.”

• The Glorification Of Sadness is out now. Paloma Faith plays the Iveagh Gardens in Dublin on July 21.