Grimes wants everyone to know that, “contrary to popular belief”, Elon Musk – her partner, the father of her child X Æ A-Xii, and, incidentally, the second richest person in the entire world – doesn’t fund her career. 

The message was conveyed after Grimes shared a snippet of a song from her upcoming lesbian opera album. The musician said her label, Columbia Records, didn’t think it was worthy of a single and she wanted feedback from her fans. When one fan asked why she was even signed to a label, Grimes replied: “Need to get out of the gate-keeping of indie music and I need $ for music videos etc haha contrary to popular belief my bf doesn’t fund my career.”

Earlier this year Grimes joined major label Columbia Records after leaving indie label 4AD which had released her last album Miss Anthropocene. In 2018 she said Miss Anthropocene would be her “final album for my shit label”.

In other Grimes news, the musician is set to judge a new, avatar-based singing competition, titled Alter Ego. Billed as “the world’s first avatar singing competition series”, the show will see contestants perform as their “dream avatars” via motion capture technology. Grimes will also be joined by the musician, veteran singing competition judge, and fellow Mars enthusiast will.i.am, as well as Alanis Morissette, and US TV personalities Nick Lachey and Rocsi Diaz. A release date is yet to be announced.