It’s barely 11 o’clock in the morning, but on set with Jorja Smith for the Bazaar photo-shoot there’s an atmosphere befitting a glittering, late-night party. Poised and purposeful in vertiginous Dolce & Gabbana heels and a bejewelled headpiece, the British singer-songwriter takes up her position in front of the camera, swaying seductively to the bass-heavy tracks that blare from the studio’s speakers.
It’s an energy familiar to those who watched her perform at Glastonbury– the pinnacle of a glorious career-defining year that saw her win the Brit award for British Female Solo Artist and be named Dior’s new global make-up ambassador, following in the footsteps of Natalie Portman and Bella Hadid.
"I don’t really have goals or dreams because I don’t like being disappointed, but I’m definitely living a dream," she tells me later, having changed into a Nike sports bra and leggings. "I’m going straight to yoga," she explains. "I’ve been doing it for a month now, but I used to hate it because I like doing things fast."
Indeed, at 22, Smith has achieved more than most people do in a lifetime. In 2018,
she became the first unsigned artist to receive the Critics’ Choice prize at the Brit Awards – proven to be an accurate indicator of impending superstardom if you look at previous winners such as Adele, Florence + the Machine and Sam Smith. Her debut album Lost & Found was a global success story, earning both Grammy and Mercury nominations, and this summer’s follow-up single ‘Be Honest’ showcases the smoky, sultry vocals that inspired previous collaborations with artists including Stormzy and Kendrick Lamar.
Smith’s rise to household-name status may seem swift, but she was putting pen to paper at an early age. "I’ve been singing since I was eight and I’ve been writing songs from 11, and I just haven’t stopped," she says. "I released my first song in 2016, so it has gone quite quickly, but it doesn’t feel like I’ve rushed into anything. I think I’ve always been like that, just ready for something."
Smith grew up in Walsall, an industrial area between Wolverhampton and Birmingham, listening to the music of her heroines Amy Winehouse and Lauryn Hill. "I used to go straight home from school and write songs," she says. "I didn’t really go out. I spent most of my birthdays by myself." In part, she thanks her parents – her mother, Jolene, is a jewellery designer, and her father, Peter, is a musician turned benefits officer – for her strong work ethic, but says, "I also choose to be like that. I’m the type to just get on with it. I’ll probably end up making myself sick working so hard."
Despite her mesmeric beauty, Smith admits she was insecure as a teenager. "My mum’s white and my dad’s black, so I didn’t see many girls who looked like me when I was growing up," she says. "I didn’t want to tan because all my friends were white, and they were skinny and had long blonde hair, and I had lips and a bum. It wasn’t until I moved to London that I felt comfortable with myself."
Her big break came in January 2016, six months after she relocated to the capital, when she was supporting herself as a Starbucks barista. Her first single ‘Blue Lights’ went viral on the music platform Soundcloud, accruing nearly half a million streams within a month. The song, hinged on a sample from the Dizzee Rascal track ‘Sirens’,was inspired by an A-level media-studies essay she was working on, titled ‘Is Post Colonialism Still Present In Grime Music?’, and her own day-to-day experiences as a mixed-race teenager.
"I’d walk down the street with my friends and they’d always be looking over their shoulders, so I just wrote about that," she says. "My point was, why should you have a guilty conscience if you’ve done nothing wrong?" It was this powerful storytelling that caught the eye of the Canadian rapper Drake, who asked Smith to sing on his track ‘Get It Together’. Initially, she declined. "I really liked it, but I hadn’t written it, so I didn’t connect to the lyrics," she says. ‘But then I split up with my boyfriend of the time and I listened back to the song and understood it." Luckily, there was still time for her to record it for Drake’s album. "So, it worked out well," she says, "but you can’t just do stuff for the hell of it, you genuinely have to love what you’re doing."
Smith’s success is all the more remarkable considering that she isn’t backed by a major label, but this too is entirely of her choosing. "I love my team and I like what we’re doing, so why do I want to change that just yet? I’m honest and real, and I keep myself grounded – I don’t want a big head." And with that, Jorja Smith says her goodbyes and walks away, a music icon in the making, marching to the beat of her own drum.
