Australian musician Tones and I had a hugely successful 2019.
Back in November, the 26-year-old, whose real name is Toni Watson, swept up four ARIA awards at her very first ceremony.
After captivating a local audience, the singer then went onto find global fame performing on The Ellen DeGeneres Show before becoming the most streamed female artist (worldwide) on Spotify with her mega-hit Dance Monkey.
In a new interview with The Hit Network’s Carrie and Tommy, Watson revealed a much darker side to her success.
“There was a point when we were coming up to the ARIAs last year, I’d had huge success, and the next day I woke up and had this overwhelming sadness and not wanting to celebrate it,” she said, before adding that she didn’t want to celebrate with her “fans or on social media”.
“I thought it was a black hole of people that just wanted to bring you down. It took me a little bit after that to realise there’s so much good there and to focus on the live performances.”
“I was like, ‘Why am I not happy, this is meant to be exciting’. I had to switch my mind over and focus on those good things because there are so many good things.”
Then, appearing on The Project, the Johnny Run Away singer went into further detail with host Carrie Bickmore.
“Six months after the ARIAs, I said to myself, I don’t think I’ve been happy one day since all this stuff has happened.”
A few days after the awards, the singer took to social media to talk about the “relentless bullying” she was receiving at the hands of online trolls.
“People always say ‘tones how does it feel, it’s must feel great, what are you feeling, you must be over the moon’,” she wrote on her official Facebook page.
“It does and I don’t want to take anything away from my well-deserved achievements and to my fans I love you unconditionally but I have been hiding a big black hole for a while now and feel if I hide it like most artists do then how are we going to help the next generations of young artist to come.. truth is (and we have all seen it) with success comes judgement and opinions, this I was prepared for, it’s normal (which is sickening) but the relentless bullying that follows every proud moment tears my mind in two [sic].”
People always say “tones how does it feel, it’s must feel great, what are you feeling, you must be over the moon”It…
Posted by Tones And I on Thursday, 28 November 2019
During the interview, the ARIA award winner also detailed how her new song Bad Child was deeply personal, however, offered very little explanation why.
“When I released that song, I never wanted to talk about that it was about me. But I decided to because I didn’t want to hide that. If I choose to release this music about me, I have to open up and tell people and not lie to my fans. It’s definitely something I thought I’d never write about or talk about, but here we are,” she said.
When Carrie pressed further, the singer admitted: “That’s a bigger story, and I guess the reason why I didn’t want to say the song is about me because elaborating on that story is probably where I would draw the line for now. Everyone has their own demons and experiences they try and shut off. You never know, in the future as my confidence grows, I’ll be more open.”
WATCH: Tones and I on The Project with Carrie Bickmore.
Aussie artist ‘Tones and I’ has really blown up with her song ‘Dance Monkey’, recently becoming the most-streamed song ever by a female artist on Spotify.
In her first-ever Aussie TV interview, we caught up to chat about an unbelievable domestic All Star basketball match. pic.twitter.com/8gLb5cRPgk— The Project (@theprojecttv) April 29, 2020