Sky Ferreira
Sky Tonia Ferreira is an American singer-songwriter, model, and actress. As a teenager, Ferreira began uploading videos on Myspace of herself singing songs she had written, which led to her discovery by producers Bloodshy & Avant and a recording contract with Parlophone in 2009. She released her first extended play, As If!, in 2011, which combined elements of electropop and dance music. Ferreira's second EP, Ghost, however, incorporated pop with more stripped-down song structures and featured collaborations with Jon Brion and Shirley Manson, as well as the critically acclaimed track "Everything Is Embarrassing", which she composed with Dev Hynes.
After multiple delays and disputes with her record label, Ferreira's debut studio album, Night Time, My Time, was released in October 2013, preceded by the lead single, "You're Not the One", and marked a departure from her former style, incorporating more experimental indie rock with synth-pop elements. The album received critical acclaim. That year, she ventured into acting with her appearance in Eli Roth's The Green Inferno. While appearing in films and other projects, she released "Downhill Lullaby" and "Don't Forget" as singles from her upcoming second studio album, Masochism, in March 2019 and May 2022, respectively.
Ferreira's earlier work incorporated elements of dance-pop, while her recent projects experiment with acoustic, new wave and primarily indie rock musical styles. Her lyrical content originally incorporated themes of rebellion and teenage romance, and has since evolved to discuss personal insecurities and more mature romantic themes. Outside her work in the entertainment industry, she has worked as a fashion model.
Early life
Sky Tonia Ferreira was born on July 8, 1992, in Venice, Los Angeles. Her ancestry is Native American, Brazilian, and Portuguese. She has one brother.Ferreira's mother was a house cleaner, and her father sold items at Venice Beach. Ferreira was largely raised by her grandmother, who had been Michael Jackson's personal hairstylist for over 30 years. Ferreira has said: "I was raised around him, I always saw him had holidays with him and stuff like that", adding that she was unaware of his fame until she was 13 years old. Ferreira expressed interest in singing as a child and, with Jackson's encouragement, her grandmother enrolled her in opera lessons.
Ferreira has said she was sexually assaulted in her adolescence twice, first by a neighbor, and second by a stranger who had broken into her home. In an interview with Rookie, Ferreira said: "I've never said anything because I don't want it to define me, but I feel like it's appropriate to say something . People feel like it defines you, and it doesn't. It's really unfortunate and disgusting and traumatizing, but it doesn't make you who you are." Ferreira dropped out of high school after her sophomore year.
Career
Ferreira began maintaining a Myspace profile where she uploaded demo versions of self-written tracks. Shortly before her 15th birthday, she wrote a letter to producers Bloodshy & Avant requesting that they offer her a recording contract, which she says happened "kind of right off the bat" after they came across her profile. In 2009, she was signed to Parlophone, and began finalizing the debut studio album that she says was first begun when she was 14 years old. In 2010, she entered the film and modeling industries after starring in the independent film Putty Hill and appearing in the magazines Dazed and Interview.2011–2012: ''As If!'' and ''Ghost''
After releasing the tracks "17" and "One", the latter peaking at number 64 on the UK Singles Chart, Ferreira announced that her debut studio album would be released on January 11, 2011. Its lead single "Obsession" peaked at number 37 on the US Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs chart. These plans never came to fruition, and were substituted for the extended play As If! and its lead single "Sex Rules" that March. A writer for MuuMuse spoke favorably of her "vocal and musical versatility" and commended the project as a "rock solid 5-track collection of next-level crunchy pop cuts." During this time, Ferreira was featured in the advertising campaign for the Calvin Klein "CK One" product line alongside Cassie Ventura. In 2012, she was photographed by Ellen von Unwerth for the cover of Vs., and appeared in the Adidas "Originals" commercial with rappers Big Sean and Snoop Dogg.In November 2011, Ferreira announced that her debut studio album would be released in 2012, with a lead single planned to precede its release that February. She was later revealed to have been working with Jon Brion, Greg Kurstin, and Shirley Manson on the project. In early 2012, Ferreira revealed Wild at Heart as the title of her record, and confirmed "24 Hours" and "Swamp Girl" for its track listing. "Lost in My Bedroom", described by Ferreira as "the most electro pop on the album", surfaced online that March. After releasing the video for the track "Red Lips" in June, she said she had renamed the record I'm Not Alright.
With her debut studio album still unreleased, Ferreira announced that her second extended play Ghost would be released in October. It respectively peaked at numbers 8 and 71 on the US Billboard Top Heatseekers and Alternative Albums component charts to the Billboard 200. Katherine St. Asaph of Pitchfork called its second single, "Everything Is Embarrassing", the track where Ferreira "could well have her breakout moment", complimenting it for beginning with "snappy, crisply sung dance-pop about long-awaited moments" and transitioning into "what should be a buoyant chorus". In her debut television performance, Ferreira performed the track on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon in January 2013. The previously leaked track "Lost in My Bedroom" was included on Ghost, and was featured on an episode of ABC's Grey's Anatomy in December.
2013–2018: ''Night Time, My Time'', touring, and acting roles
In June 2013, Ferreira starred in the short film IRL, which has been called "an eye-opening look into the reality of young life in New York". That month, she renamed her debut studio album I Will and said it would be released "later this summer". She noted that it would be composed of "ten up-tempo songs, all still pretty electronic, although for some reason it comes across more pop-rocky live." It was again renamed Night Time, My Time, and announced to be released on October 29, 2013, by Capitol Records. Upon its release, it received favorable reviews from music critics; at Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 79, which indicates "generally favorable reviews", based on 30 reviews. Rolling Stone listed it as the fifth-best debut album of 2013, noting its potent blending of synth-pop elements with a more grunge-inspired indie rock sound. The album was also listed as the 25th best overall album of the year by Complex. The record debuted at number 45 on the US Billboard 200. "You're Not the One" was released as the lead single from Night Time, My Time on September 24, 2013.In September, Ferreira starred in the independent film The Green Inferno. In the early morning of September 14, she and her boyfriend, DIIV frontman Zachary Cole Smith, were arrested at a traffic stop in Saugerties, New York, for drug possession. Ferreira, who was in possession of ecstasy tablets, was arrested on drug possession and resisting arrest; Smith was in possession of heroin. She bailed herself out. In October, Ferreira canceled the final week of her tour with Vampire Weekend after sustaining a hemorrhage to her vocal cords, which she later said was caused by a vocal node that was repeatedly misdiagnosed as laryngitis. In November, Ferreira and Icona Pop were announced as the opening acts for Miley Cyrus's Bangerz Tour, which began on February 14, 2014. Later that month, she released her third extended play, Night Time, My Time: B-Sides Part 1. In December, Ferreira was announced as the spokeswoman for hair care brand Redken. She subsequently appeared as a guest vocalist with Ariel Pink on his track "My Molly", which was released as a music video on December 23 of that year.
On February 20, 2014, during the third performance opening for the Bangerz Tour, Ferreira fell and split open her shin onstage. After completing the performance, she was taken by ambulance to an Anaheim hospital and treated with 60 stitches. As a result, she had to temporarily pull out of support for the tour, but she soon returned. On November 20, 2014, on her North American tour, Ferreira debuted the track "Guardian".
On July 16, 2014, Ferreira announced on Twitter that she was working on her second album. She called its sound "more aggressive" and worked with Ariel Rechtshaid and Justin Raisen, with whom she produced Night Time, My Time, as well as Bobby Gillespie and Andrew Innes of Scottish band Primal Scream. Ferreira also expressed the wish to collaborate with Gesaffelstein. She also appeared in the 2016 comedy-drama film Elvis & Nixon, directed by Liza Johnson, and The Trust, which stars Nicolas Cage and Elijah Wood, and is directed by Benjamin and Alex Brewer.
Ferreira confirmed on April 7, 2015, that her second studio album would be titled Masochism. On May 12, 2015, she announced that she would release a film co-written and directed by her frequent collaborator Grant Singer accompanied by a new single, with the album to be released later in the year. Jimmy Choo revealed on June 4 that Ferreira would be the face of its newest fragrance, Illicit. She collaborated with Primal Scream on the song "Where the Light Gets In", which was released on February 1, 2016, as the lead single from the band's eleventh studio album, Chaosmosis. It was announced on April 25, 2016, that Ferreira would guest-star in the 2017 sequel to David Lynch's 1990s television series Twin Peaks. In October 2016, she was cast in Jonas Åkerlund's film Lords of Chaos, based on the 1998 book of the same name by Michael Moynihan and Didrik Søderlind. She appeared in Playboy in October 2016, with the photo shoot serving as a "visual introduction" to her next album. Ferreira appeared in Edgar Wright's 2017 heist film Baby Driver, portraying the mother of lead character Baby. She also contributed a cover of the Commodores song "Easy" to the film's soundtrack, produced by Nigel Godrich.
In 2018, she said: "I would just like to clarify for some: My silence should not be confused for negligence, I deeply care and put everything I have into my music. Including all of my earnings. I won't put out something that I don't stand by or the bare minimum."