Jessie Ware
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Jessie Ware

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With her soulful, melancholy vocal, effortlessly elegant songwriting skills and, of course, that striking slicked-back hair, she marks a new era for pop. Her outstanding debut album Devotion combines the ultra-modern feel of downtempo R&B and British electronic music with the melodrama of classic stars like Sade and Whitney Houston. "I'm ready and excited," she says, of her impending stardom, before chucking in an earthy, "And I got to make a bloody lovely record, with people who are lovely, so I need to enjoy it!"

But it nearly didn't happen at all. South London born Jessie started singing at school, inspired by the romance of her mother's Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald Sings Cole Porter tapes, appearing in musicals and picking up some classical training along the way. But then she got to university and suffered a devastating crisis of confidence. "I didn't think it was ever going to be possible," she admits, having put her dreams of being a singer on hold. "It always broke my heart a bit. I couldn't even do it as a past-time, because it made me feel too sick to only half do it."

Instead, she pursued an alternative career as a journalist - "I wanted to be a football reporter for a red top," she confesses - until a chance phone call from her old friend Jack Penate changed the direction of her life completely. He remembered she could sing from school, and asked if she'd do backing vocals for him on a Zane Lowe BBC session. She leapt at the chance. "I thought, this is brilliant, it's really fun, singing," she recalls. "Maybe I could be a backing singer." Jack took her on tour with him, at first around the UK festival circuit, then to America. Her confidence issues were slowly thawing.

In the States, Jack's guitarist introduced her to the music of a new producer he knew, now going by the name SBTRKT. He lived down the road from her in Tooting, and as soon as she got home, she went round to his house. "I didn't think I could do it," she admits, suffering another dent in her confidence. Appropriately, they ended up writing a song called Nervous. "It ended up being a main vocal. SBTRKT sent it to Numbers, who wanted to put it out. He said, 'Because this is a big vocal, we should have it as SBTRKT And Jessie Ware, not just featuring.' I thought, this is amazing. I'm going to have a song on a really cool label, and whatever happens, I've got a vinyl."

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