There hasn’t been a career that has taken off so
I couldn’t be happier…” This phase of a career in music
fast, so spectacularly and so all-consumingly as Jessie
that started while she was still at school kicked off with
J’s in recent memory. Number one singles and a debut
the single “Do It Like a Dude”, a feisty performance
album that headed straight for the top, millions sold
with a video so strong there was certainly no ignoring
worldwide, show-stopping performances in front of a
this explosive new singer-songwriter, surfing between
global audience of billions at the Olympics, a full-blown
tough r’n’b and rap – and, according to one journalist,
Saturday night prime-time TV career, extraordinary
between Katy Perry and Alice Cooper - with what
acts for charity that hit the headlines, Glastonbury, the
would soon be an instantly recognisable, highly
Diamond Jubilee Concert and songs for the likes of
copied, look.
Miley Cyrus and Chris Brown… To think – three years
That was followed by “Price Tag”, the anti-
ago, we didn’t even know who Jessie J was and now
materialistic anthem of its year, and an album that sold
she’s a household name from Southend to Sydney.
in its millions going platinum several times over. But
And it looks like things are only getting more exciting
that was just the beginning of a journey that would
with an upcoming album that already has a top 5
see Jessie become the first British woman in history
single, “Wild”, on it despite the fact that single was
to take six top ten singles from one album and never
released almost secretly.
mind that it was her first outing.
“There was no pre-promo, no six-week build-up…”
“The first album is to show why you should
says Jessie, delighted that everyone seems happy to
be here,” says Jessie now that she’s working on
have her back. “I just wanted to do it for the fans and
performing the new one, working on visuals, designing
to see what would happen without all the social media
costumes. “The second album is why I should stay, so
and stuff. And it went to number one in four countries!
that first single is a good sign, even though I thought
it didn’t sound like anything else on the
forty-five minutes each way every day,
radio.” Having spent so long on the new
spending the time writing a diary that she
album, Jessie asked someone else to
would later turn into songs.
describe it to her: “They said, ‘Positive,
Having won an award on ITV for
honest, uplifting, anthemic…,’” she says.
Britain’s Best Pop Prodigy, presented to
“Words that I love. I hope that’s what it is.
her by Bee Gee Robin Gibb, she realised
I feel really proud of it and feel it really
that maybe it was music, not theatre, that
represents me.”
would be her future. “There’s footage of
Going back to the real beginning and you have a working-class girl from east
love people to hear my voice and know
London, daughter of a social worker and
it’s me’,” she says now, “and it’s so surreal
a nursery nurse, obsessed with Whitney
watching that not knowing that this was
Houston (and really listening to the lyrics!)
going to happen. When I won that, I
and badgering her parents to allow her to
thought, “Maybe I should be a pop singer”.
go to dance classes with her older sisters.
While studying for her A levels and
At the age of four she was doing ballet
“I al way s kn thing e w it I wa was s an the y go only od a t.”
me saying, ‘I just want to be a singer. I’d
working part time in toy superstore
then tap then modern dance and then
Hamley’s in London’s West End – “I was
jazz and then started acting. By seven
very busy. I don’t like sitting still” – she got
she’d formed a baby girl band with her
her first taste of the pop-star experience:
sisters called The Cornish Pasties (her
she auditioned for a girl band called Soul
underused surname is actually Cornish),
Deep and got the gig. It was for an anti-
was taping herself singing whole albums
violence single for the Mums Against Guns
worth of material for relatives for Christmas
campaign and, “It was something I really
and was already working a bob. By
believed in,” she says. It was around this
nine she was starring in the West End in
time that her parents moved Jessie and her
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Whistle
sisters out of east London after a stabbing
Down the Wind. All of this with a heart
near the family home.
condition that had her spending time in
But things soon turned sour, making
Great Ormond Street Hospital, sometimes
her realise she needed to take control of
being allowed out on day release with her
her music career, even if she was still in her
heart monitor to attend rehearsals.
teens. “I remember being at the showcase
“I always knew it was the only thing I
for Soul Deep, singing sexy songs and
was any good at,” she says now that, at
doing these moves and thinking, ‘Is this
25 years of age, the whole world knows
what it’s come to? Songs about boys
she’s good at it. “Maybe because I was
and being in the club?’” she says now. “I
always loud.”
realised that there were so many songs of
Having done well at school – ‘A’s in the
my own that I wanted to write…”
subjects she liked (English, Drama, Art),
Coincidentally, it was at that showcase
‘E’s in the ones she didn’t at GCSE – she
that Guy Holmes from GUT records picked
enrolled at the prestigious Brits School,
her out as a potential solo star, while the
birthplace of talents such as Adele and
other girls in the group were also looking
Amy Winehouse, travelling an hour and
to go their own ways, maybe picking up
I g n i h t e m o s s ” . a n w i d “It e v e i l e b y l l rea on a similar sense of anti-climax. At the
playing yourself, which can be very scary.
same time as this realisation was coming
”Pop stardom felt like overnight success
over Jessie, she was auditioning for a part
to those of us watching from the sidelines
at MTV to play a character in a drama
but, as is always the case, it wasn’t like
series who worked at a record company
that. As far as Jessie was concerned, it was
and would eventually be discovered and
the moment she landed on Later… With
made into a star…
Jools Holland to sing “Price Tag” that she
“Basically, it was Hanna Montana with
realised she was on her way. “There were
a bob!” she laughs explaining that she
other moments but it was such a whirlwind
chose music over the TV career because
of a year that it’s hard to pick a single
that’s what she believed in. MTV contacted
moment,” she says.
Jessie later to say they were canning the
In fact, her first two years in the
show as they couldn’t find anyone like
spotlight would be filled with moments
her to star in it. “I thought that was a bit
like her barnstorming performance at
exaggerated,” she laughs now, never one
Glastonbury – “I had my broken foot
to blow her own trumpet and reluctant to
but the minute I stepped out the sun
let anyone else blow it for her.
came out” – a spot on the Diamond
It was a promising career in musical
Jubilee Concert stage and the Olympics
theatre she was leaving behind (she’s
performance where she was the only act
a pretty good tap dancer, by the way:
along with Emeli Sandé to get two slots.
she’ll show you if you ask her) and she
“As I was walking up that catwalk I said to
still hasn’t written it off, saying she’d love
myself that I’d reached that moment where
one day to star in something like Wicked.
I’d watched people like Beyoncé do that
“I love playing characters,” she says, “Not
when I was 14 and 15 and here I was! I
being me. In the music industry you’re
was literally shaking with excitement!”