‘The Traitors’: Winner Stephen Libby on how Scottish folk music helped him in the show
“I'd get back to where I was staying each evening, pop my headphones in and listen to the music that reminds me of home”
By Nick Reilly
As the dust settles on season four of The Traitors, joint winner Stephen Libby has told Rolling Stone UK about how his love of Scottish folk music helped his journey on the show, as well as eagle-eyed fans noticing how he wore the same jumpsuit as Harry Styles on the show.
Stephen, originally from the Isle of Lewis but now living in London, emerged triumphant on the show as he went all the way and split a near £100,000 grand prize with fellow Traitor Rachel Duffy.
But when discussing his coping strategies during the game, Libby told RS UK how traditional Scottish folk music helped to ground him and maintain an all important sense of self as a Traitor.
“I predominantly listen to Scottish folk music, so I’m kind of a walking cliche of myself,” joked Libby.
“But there are some lovely Scottish artists that I listen to like Skipinnish and Julie Fowlis and that’s what I listened to while I was there. I live in London now, but I kind of long for home so much and though I don’t see myself moving back to the Isle of Lewis, it’s such a massive part of who I am.
“I wear my Hebridean-ness like a coat of armour and we have such a strong connection to music up on the islands, whether it’s Scottish folk music or Gaelic music. We are really intrinsically linked to those sounds up there and that for me was really important, it really grounds me. So when you’re in a weird environment like The Traitors, I’d get back to where I was staying each evening, pop my headphones in and listen to the music that reminds me of home and just relax a little bit. I could prepare for whatever was coming the next day.”
When Stephen went away for the show, he also countered any tricky questions about his lengthy absence among friends by telling them he had gone on a digital detox.
“Very fortunately, one of my really good friends had just come back from Sri Lanka and did a digital detox and she said she’d really recommend it,” he explained. “I just thought ‘Oh, that’s a very good lie that I can tell. So I just told them I was going back to the Isle of Lewis and dropping my phone in the drawer. No one really asked me any questions about that. It wasn’t until I started like trying to build up my social media in the run up to January that people were like, ‘You’re posting a lot more than usual, what’s going on?’”
There’s also the small matter of Stephen’s outfits too. Libby’s consistent array of retro outfits allowed him to shine as one of the show’s most well-dressed stars and, as some fans noticed, wear the same jumpsuit as one Harry Styles.
“I actually had my eye on it for a long time and I thought I want to save up some money to buy it, before Harry Styles wore it I will add! I was saving every month and then a year or two later Harry Styles wore it on tour and the website took it off sale, probably because they wanted him to have the lasting memory of it.
“I was devastated, like damn you Harry, that was mine,” he added. “But then I managed to find it secondhand. Everyone’s said, ‘Oh that’s the Harry jumpsuit!’ But no, this is a Stephen jumpsuit and I wore it years ago!”
As for his fellow winner Rachel, he also hailed the “Celtic connection” he shared with his Traitor partner, who is from Northern Ireland, and explained how securing victory on his own would have proved a “lonely” experience.
“I’ve been over to Ireland to visit her since and met her family who are absolutely wonderful – a really beautiful, beautiful family,” he said.
“We get to have this moment together, which has been absolutely fantastic and it was just nice to see that the Celtic connection kind of clung on right to the very end, even through the wobbles and the adversity.”