Tones & I breaks down onstage during Drew Barrymore’s Sydney event

Tones & I was caught off-guard by how emotional she became singing her latest song at Drew Barrymore’s event in Sydney last night.

Australian singer Tones & I broke down in tears onstage during her emotionally-charged Sydney performance at Drew Barrymore’s event on Friday night.

The ARIA winner, whose real name is Toni Watson, was one of the celebrity guests at Barrymore’s An Evening With Drew Barrymore, which took place at ICC Sydney Theatre.

After performing her deeply personal new song, Figure It Out, Tones was caught off-guard by how emotional she became singing the track publicly.

“I’m so sorry, I swear I’m never get emotional,” she told the packed audience.

Tones & I breaks down on stage during An Evening With Drew Barrymore. Picture: Belinda Palmada

The singer performed her deeply personal new song. Picture: Belinda Palmada

Afterwards, Tones was embraced by the Charlie’s Angels star as the pair settled in for an in-depth conversation.

Amazed by thesinger’s vulnerable performance, Barrymore asked her, “How do you get out and sing like that? How do you cut and bleed?”

Tones, who shot to global notoriety with her 2019 chart-topping hit Dance Monkey, admitted her second studio album released Friday, titled Beautifully Ordinary, marked the first time she had released music about her own life.

“Honestly, I never have,” Tones answered.

“I’ve written songs as a songwriter and not as a human being.

“And I think that’s why for the first time, honestly, I got so emotional because for a long time, I’ve just released music as a songwriter that anyone could have copied and pasted onto their own album. And to talk about myself has been a real big shock.”

Tones opened up to Barrymore in front of a live audience. Picture: Belinda Palmada

The pair shared a hug after Tones’ emotional performance. Picture: Belinda Palmada

Elsewhere, Tones, who is the first ever female artist to reach three billion streams on Spotify, opened up about being scrutinised online since her rise to fame, admitting she had privately “gone off the rails.”

“From the start, I haven’t had the answer because I was trying to figure it out for my own mental health,” she said.

“In any way you could go off the rails. The last four years I have, and I mean that really anywhere in your mind you can think of someone going off the rails, I’ve done it. I’ve been lucky enough that it hasn’t become public.

“But the best thing I could say is, after five years of dealing with this, the first time it happened, someone told me to just ignore it, and I said, ‘What the f**k? We’re meant to just ignore this?’”

Ultimately, Tones said she came to a place where ignoring hate was the only option to preserve her mental health.

The Aussie pop star shot to fame in 2019. Picture: Instagram

“Unfortunately, fighting it was so much harder than ignoring it,” she said.

“I don’t ignore it for myself now, I ignore it for my Nana. I ignore it for my family, the people that I want to seem strong to and in seeming strong, just like when you hang around with good people, you become a better person, you become strong.

“So over time, I have become strong and resilient. And I know now officially without lying and pretending, I’m someone that younger Australian artists could ask for help or lean on.

“Because just like someone told me one time, unfortunately the answer is time heals, you become stronger, you devalue the people that live to bring people down, and you focus on the good.

“If anyone in this crowd is an influencer online or an artist themselves, we know that one bad comment can trump 50 good ones.

“That’s something that we need to stop, we need to understand talk and look up at each other and also, as consumers, be better people or support the people like you would in person. It matters so much.”

Back in May, the singer opened up to Brittany Hockley and Laura Byrne on their Life Uncutpodcast about her appearance being criticised.

“With me specifically, people were so offended by how I looked that I started pre-empting what people would think before anything was even out,” she said on the podcast.

“And I judged myself as harsh as I could so I was really prepared for all that criticism. Then it wasn’t a tactic anymore.

“I started hating myself so badly that anything I did, I just couldn’t see a positive reaction to anything.”

Barrymore is set to host another sellout event in Brisbane on Saturday night, with Dannii Minogue, Baker Boy, Terri Irwin, Michael Klim and Emma Watkins among the special guests.

Originally published as Tones & I breaks down onstage during Drew Barrymore’s Sydney event