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<\/p>\nI was 18!\u2019 Wearing a black Maison Margiela T-shirt beneath a faux-leather jacket, her copper hair tamed back into a ponytail,\u00a0Jess Glynne\u00a0looks around The Old White Lion in East Finchley.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A large coaching inn-style pub, lit by candle-effect lamps, it was one of many teenage haunts across North London where she grew up. She was forever \u2018out \u2019n\u2019 about, drinking \u2013 it was wild!\u2019, carousing the Camden pubs where The Libertines and Amy Winehouse\u00a0spearheaded the vibrant music scene of the early noughties.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Glynne, now 34, sinks into an armchair. A silver choker glitters around her neck. On the table she places a lip gloss, an iPhone and her car keys, attached to a Porsche keyring. She drives a Porsche? Only now do I remember I\u2019m with a phenomenally successful pop star, current record holder for the most number one singles (seven) from a British solo female artist in UK history. But then, \u2018It\u2019s just a keyring!\u2019 she laughs, with an accent as \u2018Norf London\u2019 as Adele\u2019s. \u2018I\u2019ve got a little Fiat. Electric.\u2019\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Jess Glynne grew up with her Jewish family in the 1990s, in the desirable North London enclave of Muswell Hill. Her dad, an estate agent, and mum (who worked in A&R at Atlantic Records) were both music obsessives, their home life soundtracked by David Bowie, Aretha Franklin, Ella Fitzgerald, Joni Mitchell\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018They\u2019d always have people over,\u2019 Glynne recalls. \u2018Dad cooking, Aretha blaring out.\u2019 Her own childhood musical heroes, whose hits she\u2019d record herself singing to, were\u00a0Whitney Houston, Chaka Khan, Mariah Carey and Lauryn Hill. By 2007, when Glynne was 18, she\u2019d been a Winehouse devotee for years; when Frank<\/span>, the singer\u2019s debut album, came out on Glynne\u2019s 14th birthday, 20 October 2003, her parents bought her the CD.\u00a0<\/p>\n Post-school she drifted, working in several jobs \u2013 LA Fitness, Topman, a music management company \u2013 before spending a \u2018party year\u2019 raving in Ibiza, Greece and London. \u2018I drank a lot,\u2019 she admits. \u2018It wasn\u2019t healthy. I was lost in myself.\u2019 Her mum stepped in with an intervention. \u2018She was, \u201cYou\u2019re going to see someone, Jess, a therapist, because you\u2019re not talking to me and you\u2019re not helping yourself\u201d.\u2019 It was the late 2000s, years into headlines on Winehouse\u2019s struggles. \u2018That had an impact,\u2019 says Glynne. \u2018And when she passed \u2013 I was devastated. The way it happened. Like, \u201cThe media have taken her from us.\u201d I thought, \u201cI never want that to be me\u201d.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n She found therapy \u2018amazing, it changed my life\u2019, emerged with a new-found focus and enrolled on a 12-month course at London\u2019s British Academy of New Music. There she met songwriting collaborator Jin Jin (Jan\u00e9e Bennett) and, through years of hard graft and demos, chart hits followed, making Glynne a major label star.\u00a0<\/p>\n Bodysuit, Juana Mart\u00edn<\/p>\n Now she is once again reinventing herself. From 2013 to 2019, she was the flame-haired doyen of the dancefloor hit, famed for her smoky, powerhouse vocals and strident personality. She was seemingly always number one: featured vocalist on Clean Bandit\u2019s \u2018Rather Be\u2019 in 2013 (the soundtrack for M&S and Coca-Cola ads); and with the immortal \u2018Hold My Hand\u2019 from her debut album, I Cry When I Laugh<\/span> (2015) \u2013 the song licensed by Jet2 Holidays for its beach getaway TV ads from 2015 to this day.\u00a0<\/p>\n In 2018, Glynne\u2019s second album, Always in Between, hit number one. She\u2019s accumulated over four billion album streams worldwide, won three Ivor Novellos, been nominated for nine Brit awards and in 2019 was listed in Forbes magazine\u2019s \u2018Most Influential People Under 30\u2019. Then, in late 2019, after seven years on the punishing pop treadmill, she had a creative and existential crisis.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018I was tired \u2013 uninspired,\u2019 she says, sipping a still water and munching sea-salt crisps. After losing most of 2020 as Covid shut down the industry, early sessions for her third album were blighted by \u2018conflict\u2019 with management and label. She wanted her sound to evolve; her team wanted more of her signature hits.\u00a0<\/p>\n In early 2022 she flew to LA alone, living out of a suitcase in a hotel and hooking herself up with some of the biggest backroom names in LA, including Greg Kurstin (a producer for Sia and Adele). She met Jay Brown, co-founder and vice chairman of Jay-Z\u2019s Roc Nation empire: a world-renowned executive and force behind several multibillion-dollar brands. He was keen on a ballad she\u2019d written with Greg Kurstin, \u2018Promise Me\u2019, but wanted it for Rihanna.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018I said, \u2018\u201cNo, you\u2019re not sending it to Rihanna.\u201d I mean, it was the biggest compliment, but I was, \u201cIt\u2019s my song, and I\u2019m an artist, too.\u201d\u2019 The label boss conceded. He suggested they work together. They talked for hours. \u2018I left that meeting and thought, \u201cWho\u2019s to say I can\u2019t fire my team?\u201d\u2019 Then, back in London, Glynne lost a close friend in circumstances she doesn\u2019t wish to discuss out of respect for their family. That settled it.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018Choose what makes you happy,\u2019 she says. \u2018Be true to yourself. Life is precious. That\u2019s when I knew: I had to let go of my team. My friend was very spiritual \u2013 she would have understood what I needed. I thought, \u201cDo this, Jess, and make your friend proud.\u201d\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n Blazer dress and shirt, Tod\u2019s. Earrings and ring, Swarovski.<\/p>\n Glynne fired both her management and label. She was \u2018reasonable\u2019, she adds \u2013 \u2018Many in this industry aren\u2019t!\u2019 \u2013 and \u2018so, it was on to the next,\u2019 she says, with a toothy smile, lifting an imaginary phone to her ear. \u2018Jay, what\u2019s going on?\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n Glynne is now managed by Roc Nation; she\u2019s met both Jay-Z and Beyonc\u00e9, \u2018very humble human beings, sweet, charming\u2019, while her team at new label EMI are \u2018amazing women \u2013 it\u2019s, \u201cCome on Jess, let\u2019s frickin\u2019 \u2018ave it!\u201d We all wanna win, together.\u2019 Quietly this year she released three singles from her forthcoming third album, due next year: the drum \u2019n\u2019 bassy anthem \u2018Friend of Mine\u2019, the reflective, retro-tinged \u2018Silly Me\u2019 and the disco thriller \u2018What Do You Do?\u2019, its suggestive video featuring a high-glam Glynne in bed, in her pants, with both a man and a woman.\u00a0<\/p>\n Blazer dress and shirt, Tod\u2019s. Earrings and ring, Swarovski. Socks, Tore. Shoes, Grenson<\/p>\n In October she performed a showcase exclusively for fans in The Hawley Arms, Camden (Amy Winehouse\u2019s famed local), its highlight the first public performance of \u2018Promise Me\u2019, backed by piano. The lovelorn ballad has Glynne beseeching, \u2018Will you promise me love, even if time takes its toll?\u2019, backed up by vocals that are now less powerhouse pyrotechnics, more tremulous emotional heft. No wonder she radiates confidence. Rihanna\u2019s loss is surely her gain.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018I feel very proud of myself,\u2019 she says. \u2018I\u2019m like, \u201cYou did all of that on your own. You took all those meetings. You flew yourself out there.\u201d I want other women and young girls to be empowered by the decisions they make.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n Today\u2019s rapidly changing music industry, she says, has changed again even during her four-year hiatus. \u2018Being an artist now, it feels like living through a phone, it\u2019s scary,\u2019 she says. \u2018My joy is performing in real life. Music is about connection, isn\u2019t it? Everything is about connection.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n Glynne is ambivalent about fame; she loves \u2018the events, being an artist, but there\u2019s a heavy side; as a woman, you\u2019re analysed for everything you do, say, wear, and it\u2019s worse now because of social media\u2019. She\u2019s nostalgic for her parents\u2019 era.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018I wish I was in the 70s and 80s,\u2019 she says. \u2018My mum had it the best! It\u2019s definitely not as fun as it used to be. I love my journey, but I\u2019ve also been incredibly bruised and battered.\u2019 She\u2019s endured several social media pile-ons, most recently in 2021 when brutal abuse for a supposed \u2018trans slur\u2019 on Mo Gilligan\u2019s podcast saw her leave Twitter altogether (in a lengthy statement later posted on Instagram, Glynne said she was \u2018wholeheartedly sorry\u2019 for referring to a \u2018tranny strip-club thing\u2019 on the podcast. She\u2019s since tentatively returned to Twitter). She\u2019s now been in therapy regularly, navigating through stress, insecurity, heartache and grief. \u2018Therapy has literally saved my life,\u2019 she says. \u2018And I\u2019m now in the best place in myself that I\u2019ve ever been. I know who I am. I know what I want and don\u2019t want.\u2019<\/p>\n Top and skirt, Hellessy. Boots, Emporio Armani<\/p>\n Glynne has always refused to label her sexuality: she has dated both men and women and lives by a simple mantra: \u2018Love who you love, be you and be happy,\u2019 she says. \u2018But it\u2019s a very brutal world and outside judgment is never easy. When someone says, \u201cWell, what are you? Heterosexual, bisexual, queer?\u201d, I\u2019m like, \u201cWhy does that matter to you?\u201d\u2019 Last month, tabloid photos showed Glynne in a clinch in public with rumoured new girlfriend, former Arsenal women\u2019s striker and Football Focus<\/span> presenter Alex Scott. I wonder if this relationship, too, informs her contentment today.<\/p>\n \u2018What relationship?\u2019<\/p>\n She stares straight over at her PR, seated well within earshot on the next table. The relationship you\u2019re in with Alex, I reply, that we\u2019ve all seen in the tabloids.<\/p>\n \u2018But that\u2019s not even\u2026 No,\u2019 she responds, calmly. \u2018I\u2019ve never ever confirmed that I\u2019m in a relationship with anyone. I\u2019ve always made a conscious effort to keep something for myself. I\u2019ll never change that.\u2019<\/p>\n She fixes me with her pale blue eyes and stays admirably serene. \u2018The media is so hounding and my friendships, family, relationships, those are mine,\u2019 she tells me. \u2018Going back to Amy, her life and her relationship, it was just so\u2026 evil eyed.\u2019<\/p>\n From left: stepping out with TV sports presenter Alex Scott in May; with her parents at her post-tour celebration, 2016; partying with Adele and Geri Horner, 2019<\/p>\n Glynne was 21 when Winehouse died, aged just 27. Ever since, Glynne and her peers, especially the often-invisible Adele, have been understandably keen to keep control of their publicity. Glynne also wants to ensure that nothing distracts from those savvy business endeavours of recent years.<\/p>\n \u2018No one has come into my life and given me what I have now,\u2019 she makes clear. \u2018I\u2019ve given that to myself.\u2019<\/p>\n I just hope you\u2019re very happy, I say.<\/p>\n \u2018Oh, I am! I\u2019m happy.\u2019<\/p>\n Today, Jess Glynne remains a North Londoner, albeit having recently moved from Islington to \u2018north-ish\u2019 London. Her main recommendation for homeliness is \u2018good lighting, a candle \u2013 I love a Fornasetti\u2019 (a typical 310g Fornasetti candle is yours for \u00a3290). She counts Sam Smith, Ed Sheeran and Emeli Sand\u00e9 as close friends and is typically millennial: feminist, inclusive, \u201890 per cent vegan\u2019 and at the gym \u2018most days\u2019. As an artist, she hopes to be a force for good.<\/p>\n \u2018There\u2019s so much hate out there,\u2019 she says, of the world today. \u2018Violence, suffering, kids growing up witnessing all these wars, people are scary\u2026 we need to be kind to each other. If there\u2019s one thing I wanna project in what I do, it\u2019s hope. And love. And kindness.\u2019<\/p>\n Her own endeavours have given her financial security; she says she had no money worries over sacking her team and starting all over again. \u2018It will always be all right,\u2019 she says. \u2018I believe it! I can\u2019t let it not be.\u2019<\/p>\n Glynne prods three times at her heart: \u2018I\u2019m a winner in life,\u2019 she declares. \u2018If I got here? I can get to anywhere.\u2019 She bursts out laughing at the strength of her self-belief.<\/p>\n It\u2019s almost 5pm. We have been talking for two hours. Where\u2019s she off to now? \u2018Gym,\u2019 she announces, as the ghost of her wayward teenage self no doubt cackles somewhere within these walls. We hug goodbye and she leaves me, a pesky reporter, with a message.<\/p>\n \u2018Be nice.\u2019<\/p>\n Jess Glynne\u2019s new single \u2018Friend of Mine\u2019 is out now on EMI. Tickets for her summer 2024 UK tour can be booked at ticketmaster.co.uk\u00a0<\/p>\n Fashion director: Sophie Dearden.\u00a0<\/p>\n Picture director: Ester Malloy.\u00a0<\/p>\n Styling assistant: Jessica Carroll.<\/p>\n Hair: Beth Kucic.<\/p>\n Make-up: Grace Sinnott at Future Rep using Tom Ford Beauty and Elemis.\u00a0<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/14\/16\/78832375-12849921-Bodysuit_Juana_Mart_n-a-7_1702570952747.jpg\")
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