Tikaram is now in her mid-fifties and living in north London. She\u2019s lived there on and off since she was 20, but as a child she travelled a lot as her father was in the military.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot exotic travel, but a lot of different postings. Mostly in Germany,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n
Tikaram says she finds it interesting to reflect on how normal she considered the constant moving around versus a modern-day focus on the need for stability for children. \u201cYou just went to the school that was next door. I think it\u2019s different now. People are much more concerned about where your children go to, and having a particular kind of education. When I was growing it, it was a bit more free range,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Tikaram\u2019s mother\u2019s family live in Malaysia<\/a>. Her dad is Indian-Fijian. \u201cThere was a big Fijian community in the army,\u201d she explains. \u201cThat was a really loving community and a very musical one.\u201d<\/p>\n So was this when Tikaram discovered she could sing? \u201cI don\u2019t think I ever realised that,\u201d she says. \u201cWhen I was a kid we used to just sing \u2026 But I can\u2019t harmonise or sing properly. I just sing my own songs. It\u2019s not like I could get up and sing a song from a musical, which I envy.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI remember once having a drink with someone who is a music teacher and they said something really funny, that \u2018a woman shouldn\u2019t really learn by singing The Beatles or something\u2019, and I just thought, \u2018That\u2019s how I learned\u2019. I emailed her and I said, \u2018What did you mean?\u2019 and she said \u2018They\u2019re all in the wrong range for a woman\u2019.\u201d <\/p>\n Tikaram, who sings in a distinctively low voice, adds: \u201cI imagine I was singing from a young age, maybe lower than I should have been singing, because I was listening to a lot of men.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I was younger I didn\u2019t think that you could change the key of a song that you wrote. I was so innocent\u201d.<\/p>\n As a younger woman, Tikaram coped with her success by viewing it as part of her job. <\/p>\n \u201cWhen you have that kind of success, you are working a lot. In a way you kind of intellectualise it as part of your job. Maybe that makes it more manageable but you kind of go \u2018Okay, I\u2019ve made a record and now it\u2019s a big hit and so this I guess this is part of what I do now.\u2019 <\/p>\n She\u2019s very glad, nonetheless, that she was dealing with it then rather than now. \u201cYou really are under a microscope now. I think it must be very hard to have success when the attention is constant. And at quite a vulnerable age you have to be knowing about so many things, which I think are unknowable. <\/p>\n \u201cAnd I think that\u2019s a lot of pressure on a young person \u2026 I feel lucky that I wouldn\u2019t be having the pressure of social media or trying to present what kind of person you are all the time. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s healthy.\u201d<\/p>\n Tikaram holds some strong political views. She believes in the artists using their voices to speak out about current affairs. Referring to the situation in Gaza<\/a>, she says: \u201cI think, why wouldn\u2019t you say something? I don\u2019t see how you can\u2019t say anything. There are some things that are so obviously unjust.\u201d <\/p>\n [\u00a0Britain\u2019s summer angst over migration heaps pressure on Keir Starmer\u2019s Labour governmentOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n Of British prime minister Keir Starmer<\/a>, she says: \u201cA lot of his demonisation of immigrants and migrants, it\u2019s absolutely abhorrent. He represents my constituency. And it\u2019s a really diverse, wonderful constituency. I just can\u2019t understand why he\u2019s trying to align himself with the values of Reform<\/a>. That doesn\u2019t make sense to me. It\u2019s shocking.\u201d Starmer has branded Reform UK\u2019s policy of scrapping indefinite leave to remain \u201cracist\u201d and \u201cimmoral\u201d.<\/p>\n Tikaram says: \u201cMy father is from Fiji and my mother is from Borneo, East Malaysia. They were both British colonies. So they are British from the moment they were born. It\u2019s just this constant questioning of whether a person is legitimate that is very scary. And it\u2019s happening all the time. Whether you can prove somehow that you belong. And that\u2019s not an accident. It\u2019s creating such a precarious existence for so many people. Who is legitimate now? Do you just belong if you\u2019re really, really rich? Is that the sense of belonging that we\u2019re supposed to admire, or aspire to? <\/p>\n \u201cAnd it\u2019s not just about race. It\u2019s about disability. It\u2019s about age. It\u2019s about so many things. It\u2019s about the welfare system. And you just wanted from a Labour government for them to be different, because they were voted in on a great feeling of anger about what the Tory government was doing. That was an opportunity to really address the inequalities in our society and that\u2019s not what this government seems to be doing. It seems as beholden to corporate interests as the last government.\u201d<\/p>\n Tikaram\u2019s has a new album LIAR was produced, she says, at an age when \u201cyou really wonder about your place in the world\u201d. There are also some \u201cbanging tunes\u201d, she adds.<\/p>\n![\"Tanita](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/4XABKPBZ4JDY5H6L53TFFJQBFE.jpg\")
Tanita Tikaram promotes her album LIAR (Love Isn’t a Right) in London. Photograph: Justin Goff Photos\/Getty <\/p>\n