{"id":15938,"date":"2025-09-11T12:58:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T12:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/15938\/"},"modified":"2025-09-11T12:58:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T12:58:07","slug":"pops-star-student-is-ready-for-the-big-leagues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/15938\/","title":{"rendered":"pop\u2019s star student is ready for the big leagues"},"content":{"rendered":"

When you first listen to \u2018That\u2019s Showbiz Baby!\u2019, you\u2019ll be struck by how much of a student of pop music JADE<\/a> really is. Sure, the South Shields singer has more experience than most artists on their debut album, given she\u2019s been a member of Little Mix<\/a> for over a decade and has navigated the music industry since she was 18. But look beyond that, and you\u2019ll realise how cleverly she understands and uses her craft, how she plays with trends and genres to truly make them her own.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s best exemplified by the album\u2019s opener and lead single, \u2018Angels Of My Dreams\u2019, a sharp, complex look at her relationship with the music industry that NME previously named one of the best songs of 2024<\/a>. Its internal push and pull \u2013 frenzied, electroclash verses coming up against the dreamy, angelic chorus \u2013 is, coincidentally or not, a lovely reflection of the album as a whole: chaotic, intense, with a bit of everything thrown in.<\/p>\n

Whether it\u2019s hard-and-fast electropop (\u2018IT Girl\u2019 and \u2018Midnight Cowboy\u2019), a vocal-led ballad moment (\u2018Natural At Disaster\u2019) or something more in the R&B world (\u2018Lip Service\u2019), she tackles it all head-on with the gusto of someone who\u2019s finally been given the chance to do what she wants and loves. Everything fits like a glove on the burgeoning pop great, but JADE is at her best when she embraces her inner disco goddess.<\/p>\n

The genre\u2019s euphoric, danceable nature pairs beautifully with the singer\u2019s oft-vulnerable vocal delivery, such as on the groovy \u2018Before You Break My Heart\u2019, which samples The Supremes<\/a>\u2019 \u2018Stop! In The Name Of Love\u2019. Her natural affinity with disco shines brightest on the mid-album run of \u2018Fantasy\u2019, a genuinely joyous celebration of sexual liberation, to the bittersweet Kylie<\/a>-esque love song \u2018Self Saboteur\u2019.<\/p>\n

Sandwiched between the latter two is album highlight \u2018Unconditional\u2019, a mix of Giorgio Moroder\u2019s pioneering production work on Donna Summer<\/a>\u2019s \u2018I Feel Love\u2019, laser synths that recall the addictiveness of Anita Ward\u2019s classic 1979 hit \u2018Ring My Bell\u2019 and a dash of MGMT<\/a> for good measure. Like many great disco songs, it features a strong undercurrent of sadness, and here that\u2019s driven by JADE\u2019s exploration of her emotions around her mother\u2019s battle with illnesses (\u201cYou\u2019re killing me with all your self-neglection \/ If I lose you now, then I lose it all).<\/p>\n

As the singer herself admits, she \u201clive[s] and breathe[s] pop music\u201d<\/a>, so it\u2019s no surprise then that JADE\u2019s influences can sometimes be stronger than her own voice. Dancey cut \u2018Headache\u2019 is a worse version of Lady Gaga<\/a>\u2019s \u2018Zombieboy\u2019, while \u2018Glitch\u2019 sounds like a leftover from Ariana Grande<\/a>\u2019s trap era. These moments are few and far between on this thoughtful 14-track album, where only three songs run shorter than three minutes, but blemish an otherwise flawless debut.<\/p>\n

After being a student of the pop world all her life, JADE is ready to graduate from girl group starlet to full-fledged pop superstar on \u2018That\u2019s Showbiz Baby!\u2019, a statement piece of an album that\u2019s chock-full of bravado, intelligence and, frankly, hits.<\/p>\n

Details<\/p>\n

\"jade<\/p>\n

Record label: RCA Records
\nRelease date: September 12, 2025<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When you first listen to \u2018That\u2019s Showbiz Baby!\u2019, you\u2019ll be struck by how much of a student of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15939,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[156,157,111,139,69,4913],"class_list":["post-15938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-pop"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}