Sky Ferreira: Troubled Genius or Pathological Liar? (A Career Retrospective)
Sky Ferreira’s career has been marked by a series of false starts, controversies, and unmet expectations, all of which have left fans increasingly disillusioned. Her debut album Night Time, My Time was fraught with delays and underwent numerous iterations before its eventual release. In 2010, Sky blamed her record label for the initial postponements, a sentiment she has repeated in recent interviews for her alleged sophomore album. Due to the delays of her debut album, many fans were frustrated – "it's hard to imagine a proper album coming at this point when every few months we get empty announcements of album titles and album covers, with little to no progress made towards actually putting an album out there."
(Notice how Sky has lied about “big things happening this winter”, this alleged winter will come up many times in Sky’s pathological lying history)
During her early career, Sky had a lot of industry support and modelling opportunities. Her manager was Elton John at one point, while the Lifetimes singer and Dr. Luke supporter Katy Perry had been a dear friend to her, who would often joke about an underaged Sky getting pregnant or sleeping with DJs.
In 2013, Sky and her boyfriend Zachary Cole Smith were arrested after a car search by the police. They found him to be in possession of 42 decks of heroin and a stolen license plate. Sky, meanwhile, was found with Ecstasy and charged with possession of a controlled substance and resisting arrest. In response, Sky claimed "I kind of got fucked with. And it’s annoying because I wasn’t charged with his heroin. It says it. The public records are out there. I wasn’t charged with it. Trust me, if I was even anywhere near that, they would’ve charged me because they had no problem charging me with other shit. They were out to kind of like fuck with us. I’m scared to say more than that because I don’t want them to arrest us anymore." (Notice how Sky was deflecting blame and avoiding accountability, while alleging that the police were purposefully out to fuck with her.)
Just a few days before this incident, Sky almost missed a paid DJ appearance in New York. The 21-year-old was "feeling under the weather", according to the New York Post, and claimed to have been with her doctor until 15 minutes before the dinner. Notice how this is one of many times she has used the excuse of being ill in her career. Was it illness or was it something else that was plaguing the troubled genius/pathological liar? Around the same time, Sky’s performance at the Pitchfork Music Festival came under attention when the singer looked like she was under the influence of a certain jaw-clenching substance. She would then go on to cancel her shows with the band Vampire Weekend under the excuse of “an illness affecting her vocal cords”. This came a month after her arrest.
In 2014, Sky got in trouble over allegations of racism and exploitation for her I Blame Myself music video. The song seems almost ironic, considering she has never once taken responsibility in her life and has always blamed others for her shortcomings. In it, she plays the leader of a gang who participates in some illegal activity before getting arrested, possibly referencing her arrest for drug possession. But the video has drawn accusations of exploitation and racism for the way Sky positions herself in relation to her gang members/dancers. "Almost touching black men doesn't make you cool, dangerous, or liberated in 2014," one person wrote on Twitter. "I'm tired of seeing black people used as props," another wrote on Facebook.
Following the racist accusations, Sky was once again in the press for defending the disgraced photographer Terry Richardson calling him a "a supportive & caring friend" and says that Richardson never "forced or manipulated" her into anything. "Basically if one more person has the nerve to ask/tell me that I've fucked Terry Richardson, I will slit their fucking throat." the singer said.
In the meantime, Sky shared a snippet of the Guardian demo on Instagram and announces that she will release it "next year" alongside a video directed by Grant Singer. (This never happens) The following year, Sky tweets that a new song/film directed by Grant Singer will come out in the summer. (This never happens) Via Instagram, Sky announces that Guardian is coming out in the summer and shares another snippet. (This never happens) Sky posts a drawing by Lucas David on Instagram and captions it "2016 #MASOCHISM... UP FIRST IS #Guardian (summer 2015)". (This never happens) Sky makes an Instagram post confirming that she is still working on Masochism and to have patience. Sky makes an Instagram post stating the first song from Masochism will be released in early 2016. (This never happens)
In 2016, Mike Dean spoke about executively producing Masochism. He said he was “supposed to be doing Sky Ferreira’s album, which is kind of a scheduling nightmare.” Considering Sky’s tendency to be late for every scheduled appointment, it would certainly be a nightmare to schedule anything with her.
Sky also has a history of shooting music videos that never gets released, much like her music. For her Don’t Forget music video, she claimed to be unhappy with how the video was edited and she was taking it back and re-editing it herself, effectively firing the video editor. In several interviews, Sky promised the music video alongside the Masochism album will 100% definitely come out in 2022. She complained about her label asking her to shoot the video on an iPhone, even though many artists from Lady Gaga to Selena Gomez have iPhone shot music videos, notice how Sky views herself above that.
Furthermore, Sky seems to have made videos for her songs Legends and Love In Stereo. The former was never released without any explanation, and she claimed that the video for the latter was lost/burnt in a fire because it was shot on VHS only. In 2023, she said that she wasn’t sure if this had actually happened, blaming the person who shot the video for the claims and the video never being released. There also appears to be footage for a Heavy Metal Heart music video or live performance by Grant Singer for MTV, Sky once posted a teaser for this (which appears to have been erased from the internet) but the video never came out. In a new 2024 interview, Sky said “It’s funny; I feel like I haven’t been able or allowed to make many music videos.” which is an interesting take, considering she has many unreleased music videos she blamed others for not being able to put out.
In 2019, Sky came out of her hiding to feature on Cross You Out by Charli XCX. Charli said that she had an idea for the song and she sent it to Sky, however, she was not totally convinced it would work, because of style differences and Sky maybe concentrated on working on her album. In the end, Sky wanted to do the song, so she went to Los Angeles, and recorded her verse. Charli said it took months for Sky to decide to do the song and record her vocals. Charli also said she almost had to go ahead without Sky as the deadline to submit her album was fast approaching.
On the song, Sky’s vocal take sounds muffled/noisy. Some time later, the solo demo of the song leaks with almost identical lyrics to the released version, minus a few word changes in Sky’s verse. Sky is interestingly credited as a songwriter on the song. While Charli had to wait months to get Sky’s parts for their song, in 2022, Sky was supposed to provide vocals for a song called Spectral Eyes from Blondie's new album. She said she would record her vocals while she was in Wales during August—but she never turned in her parts. The fans could not help but joke “Fake news! Capitol Records deleted her vocals!”.
This is also not the first time Sky has received a doubtful credit for her alleged songwriting skills. In 2021, two demos by producer Justin Raisen were leaked by a prominent insider for the songs Guardian and Legends - songs that were heavily teased by Sky. The demos drew attention for being lyrically identical to Sky’s versions. Even though Sky has a tendency to claim she is the visionary behind her songs, one of Dev Hynes' early demos for her song Everything Is Embarrassing leaked with, once again, almost identical lyrics to Sky's version. While singing the song live, Dev said he wrote the song for Sky which she said it bothered her. “My music is precious to me even though I don’t completely do it myself,” Sky said. Dev later addressed those comments and says that he was “annoyed.” The piece goes on: “Dev says that Sky made some structural changes in the vocals that made the song even better, but he’s proud of the core he wrote and loves to perform it.” doubling down on the fact he is actually the writer of the song, while Sky was desperate to be seen as the creator of it.
Despite her apparent lack of commitment to her music career, Sky has been quick to lash out at other artists. In 2019, she started blasting newly formed girl group Nasty Cherry (backed by Charli XCX) on Twitter for stealing her sound, the sound that was heavily realised, written and produced by her collaborators (such as Dev Hynes, Justin Raisen and Tamaryn). Sky was being very vocal about Nasty Cherry's music being an attempt to recycle her sound and she was acting as the gatekeeper and inventor of that specific 90s style, and even replied to tweets of people that straight up mentioned Charli for supporting Nasty Cherry. "My album might come out six years later than my previous one but at least I took the time to come up with my own work instead of taking someone else’s."
She went on to say that they need to find their own sound and her new music is coming soon (This never happens). She then started fighting with a fan on Twitter that it is men who are stealing from her, then says she’s not threatened by Nasty Cherry because it’s a sound she’s already done. Sky has also shown frustration when she didn’t receive credit for her “co-production” work on songs such as Don’t Forget and Downhill Lullaby - Sky calls Pitchfork "painfully lazy" for their poor review of Don't Forget and not crediting Sky as a producer of the song. - A lot of it seemed to be the insecurities and projections of someone with tendencies to claim ownership over songs written for her.
To no one’s surprise, this is not the first time Sky has subtweeted other artists for supposedly stealing her original, never done before sound and aesthetic. In 2015, Sky attacked Halsey on Twitter saying that she is “not born with either taste or talent” and dragging their shared record label into the drama with “Ever heard of intellectual property?” Sky was claiming that Halsey stole her aesthetic for her Ghost music video and that their label was hiring everyone who worked with Sky to replicate that with Halsey. Although this is perhaps the most angry she’s been at a label, this is not the first time Sky has publicly slammed her labels. In the past, she has blasted Capitol for not having vinyl copies of her debut album Night Time, My Time ready in time for release and expressed frustration at EMI for continuously delaying her album for years. The feud with Halsey would then be revived in 2022 by Sky on Instagram. In response to the 2016 drama, Halsey famously said:
Sky blames a lot of the delays of Masochism on her label, Capitol Records. She claims they have stopped her from working with many in the industry by labelling her as "mentally ill", "difficult", "unprofessional", and a "drug addict". She also said to her label "You have literally ruined my life... My life was taken from me.” At times, she has seemingly partly attributed this to her own perfectionism (“I won’t put out something that I don’t stand by,” she wrote on Instagram in 2018) but at others appeared to blame her label. “I have been very quiet about what’s going on with my music for a few reasons… I was genuinely stuck at the mercy of other people before (for almost years at this point).” In a 2019 tweet (which is now unavailable as Sky’s account is no longer active), she blamed the delay on “insane obstacles with my record label”. She also blamed Trump by saying Masochism “couldn’t possibly exist during the Trump era”. She also says if she can’t release Masochism, she’ll try to release an EP of covers “on Soundcloud or something”. This was one of the few times she talked about releasing a covers EP. (This never happens)
In a 2017 interview, Sky announces that she still does not feel well enough to release a full album and that she is instead putting out a "heavily visual" EP that will begin to be released in February or March "for sure". (This never happens) A fan asks Sky where new music is considering the 60 days she mentioned before is almost up, to which she replies "I never gave a date. People need to stop putting non existent dates on things. I was talking about something else." She also says that a winter release is still happening. (This never happens) A year later, Sky announces that she is releasing new music "right before the decade is over" on Instagram. (This never happens). She then posts a picture on Instagram with the caption "THIS WINTER". She deletes the post minutes later. (It is worth noting that Sky has now announced she will be releasing music for the past 3 consecutive winters, with only one song actually being released). The following year, she replies to a fan asking about new music on Instagram, affirming once again that she has finished her singles and is waiting for the coronavirus crisis to be over so she can make videos and perform the songs live. She also states that she is personally aiming for a 2020 release, although that is dependent on how the pandemic turns out.
All of this made the #FreeSkyFerreira supporters believe that there was a finished, mastered album that was being held hostage by her label – even though she blamed her perfectionism, mental and physical health, Coronavirus, Trump and several other factors for the lack of an album release. On her journey of self-victimisation and pathological, narcissistic attention seeking, she often addresses the rotted Free Sky Ferreira community with her mother by liking their comments and responding vaguely. Alas, there is no mastered album waiting to be released.
In 2021, Sky gave an interview to a podcast stating that the album is 70% complete and that something is coming April 2. (This never happens) In 2022, she talked about Masochism again saying “It’s basically done for the most part, it’s just that some parts need to be re-recorded. Just the finishing touches, really.” In another interview she said she would like to write more songs for the album. She claims a video for Don’t Forget is coming, but “gets frustrated while talking about it.” Stereogum included Masochism as their 4th most anticipated album of 2022. Sky responds on her Instagram saying “It happens every year but it’s actually coming out this time”, implying Masochism will be released in 2022. In the meantime, Sky's mother Tonia would also post that her daughter's album would be released. (This never happens)
Most notoriously, Sky had an unprofessional, disappointing series of tour dates. Several of the shows delayed or cancelled without any explanation, shows often had late start times without an opening act, many fans complained it was difficult to see Sky because of bad lighting conditions and her requesting the venue to turn down the lights, she would go on to be passive aggressive with her band mates often restarting songs. During the day of one of the earlier shows, she fired her sound engineer. Although she claimed her start times have always been 9:30pm and that “she wasn’t late”, each night would have a wildly different start time and fans would never know when to arrive. She would often blast the venues for supposedly providing her the wrong curfew time when she would get escorted off stage due to curfew. If there was no curfew, she would stay on until after midnight, causing fans to miss their last trains/buses. For full price tickets, you would not know how many songs you would get, although she claimed she would always do 2 hour shows, this was simply inaccurate as most shows were only around a little over an hour consisting of 13-15 songs (only a few “special shows” got full setlists). One fan wrote on Twitter “Sky Ferreira showed up 80 mins late to her Sydney gig and is performing the whole show in the dark with her back turned the crowd, who’s surprised?”. Another wrote “That was exactly the Sky Ferreira show I paid for. Shows up 1.5 hours after showtime, starts after 9:05pm, has to redo entrance due to technical difficulties, cuts 9 songs due to venue curfew, leaves stage right.” The shows, just like her 2019 Pitchfork festival performance, would be plagued by “technical difficulties”.
After fans were upset about the delay of one of the shows from May to June, Sky went on an unprofessional and petty Instagram rant accusing venues for her late start times and then accuses unhappy fans of making clickbait tweets to try and get "covered by trashy tabloids". This was followed by the actual cancellation of the show without any reason being given, which most people commented “not surprised”.
For one of the shows she was late for, Sky claimed on Instagram that she was involved in a car accident. Without any proof of her claims, and the fact that she was notoriously late to most if not all her performances and interviews, the fans joked Capitol Records crashed the car remotely. For some of the shows, the venue would had to come out and clarify that Sky was still in her hotel room when the performances were supposed to start. One fan commented “then she turns up to this performance late and clearly unprepared, possibly drunk. The whole set just consisted of her being pissed at the band/engineers/team etc. ‘saying this isn't real, this isn't happening’. The same instrumental kept starting over and over again. The backdrop was just a plain red screen, they had to skip songs because of her lateness and because they couldn't get the recorded instrumentals to work - the live band seemed to be doing very little. She sounded okayish but I couldn't tell how much was playback. A couple of times she commented on how bad her performance was.”
(Notice how she needed to deflect blame and avoid responsibility by pointing out that she wasn't the driver of the alleged car accident)
During one of the performances in the UK, she got kicked off the stage due to curfew. In response, she shrugged while walking off. Her frequent excuses—ranging from technical issues to supposed car accidents—have worn thin with her audience, many of whom have lost patience.
Furthermore in 2022, Sky revealed she was diagnosed with Lyme disease. The timing of this announcement was interesting as it came after a series of interviews during which the journalists meeting up with Sky noted that she was either late or looking ill. Laura Snapes wrote “Days after the festival, as I spend an hour waiting in a London hotel (the last of three last-minute location changes), perhaps an enigma is what Ferreira will remain. She eventually emerges from the lift and says she is sorry for the delay: she was doing a Covid test after leaving Europe with a cough. She looks exhausted, her star power depleted, brown circles around her eyes. She seems spacey as we head for a quiet corner and as we sit, she texts her bandmates to say she tested negative.”
After a disastrous and unprofessional tour, she started being shady to Capitol Records and Halsey with snarky Instagram comments and stories (nobody made her do that), posting a picture giving the middle finger in front of the Capitol building (30 year old woman).
For the release of Don’t Forget, Sky started teasing the song in March 2022 (nobody made her do that). It seems like the singer wasn’t happy with the music video, so she fired the editor and took it upon herself to edit it (nobody made her do that), delaying the song release for over 2 months. After not being able to finish the video, she seemed to have given up and told Capitol to release the song without the video being ready. A prominent insider revealed the date that it was coming on with a different cover art, she then changed her mind and delayed the release for another week (nobody made her do that) to replace the cover with a nicer picture from the video. She then went on a press tour all summer repeatedly insisting that the video and the album are coming in 2022/2023 (nobody made her do that), giving contradictory statements like "the album is finished, just needs a bit of touch-up" in one interview to "the album is almost finished, I still need to write a few songs" on another (nobody made her do that).
Following the release of Don’t Forget, Sky teased her best song Descending on Instagram saying that was the song she wanted to put out first, taking a jab at her label. This is in direct contradiction with her 2018 teasing in which she said Don’t Forget is one of the first two singles she wants to put out, the other being Downhill Lullaby. During the same time, she was blasting her label for not giving her access to her Soundcloud account. Upon getting the login to her Soundcloud account, she said “I promise I will be posting a lot more stuff on here & will let you know more about my album.” (This never happens)
In 2023, Sky and Capitol parted ways due to “creative differences”. As her last remaining two fans wait for Sky to finally release Masochism in 2024, she remains incapable of taking responsibility and showing accountability for any of her actions consisting of decade plus long lies and false promises. After Sky Ferreira Updates announced on Twitter that they were closing for business in 2023, they were privately asked for a comment, to which he replied saying he is “over her.”
As of now, Sky Ferreira's career is a cautionary tale of wasted potential, marked by a decade of broken promises, unprofessional behaviour, and public feuds. Is it drugs/alcohol? Or simply being a spoiled, entitled, untalented brat with narcissistic tendencies who struggles to sing, perform, release or write her songs that made her lose so much industry and fan support? With her fanbase dwindling and her credibility in tatters, it remains to be seen whether she can salvage her career and finally deliver on the promises she has made for so long. As her supporters continue to wait for the elusive Masochism album, many are beginning to wonder if Sky Ferreira was ever the talented and troubled genius she was pretending be.
(this piece has many quotes from online articles/publications as well as the original Masochism timeline thread on ATRL, full credit to authors)
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