Jorja Smith Is Soaring High

With her mesmeric voice, purposeful poise and a smile that brings all the joy, Jorja Smith is soaring high

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IN JANUARY 2016 – without being signed to a label – Jorja Smith released her first single “Blue Lights”. Dropping on SoundCloud, it had more than 400,000 listens within the month – Smith had gone viral. In the years since, the UK singer has worked with Drake, Kendrick Lamar and Stormzy. Her debut album Lost & Found scored her a Grammy nomination. In February this year, she won a Brit Award for Best Female Solo Artist (the award now sits in her living room). Add to this, in April she was announced as the new Dior makeup ambassador, following Bella Hadid and Natalie Portman. It’s fair to say Smith has had a spectacular rise. She sits down with her friend, model Adwoa Aboah, to share the soundtrack of her life so far. What follows is a conversation that covers confidence, crying and why a little more self-care is next on Smith’s agenda.

AA: When you write songs, which do you do first – lyrics or melody?

JS: I never write the lyrics before. I just sing and then write along to the melodies. It won’t really make sense at first, but I might repeat certain phrases or words, and keep doing that. I always record it on VoiceNotes on my phone, then go back.

AA: Tell me about the first song you released, “Blue Lights”.

JS: It seems like forever ago. It went a bit mad, but I’d never put a song out before, so I didn’t know what was normal and what wasn’t normal. It did very well, so I put out another song, and another, then just kept putting out songs and videos… And now we’re here.

AA: Do you still write about whatever you’re going through?