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Ware with her mother, Lennie, on ITV\u2019s This MorningKen McKay\/ITV\/Shutterstock<\/p>\nJessie Ware, the singer, podcaster, mother and wife, opens the door to her rather gorgeous end-of-terrace house in south London and, immediately, lets me into her blur of a world.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She rushes us into the kitchen and offers me toast, tea and a cookie she insists will still taste nice, despite being burnt. It is mid-afternoon. Earlier Ware taped her popular podcast, Table Manners, which she hosts with her mother, Lennie. Special guest? The Friends star Lisa Kudrow. Soon her children will be home from school. She is expecting an Uber, to pick up an outfit for a wedding she is singing at the next day. <\/p>\n
\u201cTwo minutes away!\u201d she says, sending a voice note to someone that ends \u201cSorry babes!\u201d \u2014 as we settle in the lounge, next to a sleepy cat.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I\u2019m quite exhausting to be with quite a lot of the time,\u201d she admits, talking quickly and punchily, her long hair and big earrings seemingly in constant motion. \u201cBut then also, I\u2019m exhausted\u2026\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ware with her mother, Lennie, on ITV\u2019s This MorningKen McKay\/ITV\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n
No wonder she is relatable. Ware\u2019s knack for mixing a public personality with something more homespun, and lots of sharing, is why Table Manners has more than 60 million downloads, with guests ranging from Paul McCartney to Margot Robbie. It has a simple format in a complex world \u2014 Ware, 41, and Lennie, 74, cook for guests and they talk. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt is Mum, more than me,\u201d Ware says about the podcast\u2019s success. They amped it up over Covid, \u201cto keep Mum sane\u201d.<\/p>\n
Lennie divorced Ware\u2019s father, the journalist John Ware, when the singer was ten, and raised her, her elder sister, Hannah, and younger brother, Alex, alone. John Ware had been unfaithful and was estranged from his daughter for years. \u201cMum is quite fabulous,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd the podcast is nurturing, nourishing, even if we did argue today.\u201d She grins. \u201cYet it\u2019s still loving.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Indeed, given that there are almost 400 episodes of Table Manners, listeners can be forgiven for forgetting that talking to famous people is not really Ware\u2019s job. That she is actually a platinum-selling singer who emerged 15 years ago, having gone to the same south London private school, Alleyn\u2019s, that spawned Florence Welch and gave her a foothold that led to work with Kylie Minogue and Ed Sheeran. <\/p>\n
Her sixth record, Superbloom, is out this week and it is a euphoric blast of disco, funk and fun \u2014 with the recent video Ride showing Ware really getting to know James Norton.\u00a0\u201cI don\u2019t want to sound like a dick, but people at the school gates said \u2018thank you\u2019 for that video,\u201d she says. \u201cIt has brought up conversations.\u201d<\/p>\n
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With James Norton for the Ride video<\/p>\n
Her voice has never been stronger, and from the Botticelli-like album cover down, the whole project continues Ware\u2019s pivot to dance music that started with her fourth album, What\u2019s Your Pleasure? in 2020 and broke her away from the more soft and soulful electronica of her debut, Devotion, from 2012.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh God, have you had to listen to all of my records?\u201d she asks, gasping. Of course. And I noticed that, unlike many pop stars who tend to write slower songs the older they get, Ware appears to have gone from the dinner party of her breakthrough to the party of her later work\u2026 <\/p>\n
\u201cYou thought it used to be background dinner party music?\u201d she asks, scoffing. Hang on. Portishead have been called dinner party music. It\u2019s no insult. \u201cNo, I hear you,\u201d she says, laughing. \u201cI started out at the same time as the xx and we would do these soft voices\u2026\u201d She whispers: \u201c\u2018Don\u2019t mind us\u2026\u2019\u201d But now she thinks of clubs these songs might fill? \u201cYes, I\u2019m ready to step into that space.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I\u2019ve had a funny trajectory,\u201d she continues. \u201cWriting my first record was beautiful \u2014 I didn\u2019t feel pressure. But then there was definitely the sense of, \u2018Right, what are we going to do now?\u2019 And I thought they wanted me to be an Adele, and that\u2019s where it got muddied. So my recent records, really, have been the return to my main love, club music. This is a celebration. And \u2014 without sounding smug \u2014 I wanted to celebrate myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
I say she sounds contented on Superbloom. \u201cI agree,\u201d she says. \u201cBut it\u2019s not the sexiest thing to say you\u2019re loving domesticity \u2014 even if we should celebrate it and romance, connection, and not apologise for being female pop stars in our forties.\u201d <\/p>\n
Which brings us to sex \u2014 of which the new album has quite a lot. \u201cHold my hips\/ Watch me move,\u201d go the lyrics for Ride. \u201cOn the rug\/ Baby keep it up,\u201d goes Mr Valentine. Ware has been married to the personal trainer and her teenage boyfriend, Sam Burrows, since 2014 and this is new territory in pop, an industry whose female stars are largely expected to sing sad songs about men before disappearing for babies. <\/p>\n
Ware laughs. \u201cI remember when I got married,\u201d she says. \u201cI was 29 and kept being asked, \u2018Oh, you are married? How are you going to write a song now?\u2019 It is ridiculous. But I also cannot pretend I\u2019m going through heartbreak by a bloke every day, because I\u2019m not. I have a brilliant, secure, fantastic man who supports me, but we\u2019re at this weird age, aren\u2019t we?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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At a House Against Hate gig, earlier this yearAndy Barton\/Alamy<\/p>\n
In what way? \u201cWell, it\u2019s when your kids are slightly older,\u201d she explains. \u201cAll of them at school. You\u2019re no longer up in the night. You\u2019re not doing nappies. They are more independent and so maybe your relationship with your partner transitions from saying, \u2018Are you doing that feed?\u2019 It is that reclaiming of your sexual identity, needs, wants. Also, you start to understand how you view your body again, which has been a vessel and a tool. It\u2019s a really interesting time, your forties, because you are near midlife. You are nearing a time when you think about dying, but this is a sweet spot, where you want to cram in as much fun as possible. It\u2019s a frenzied time.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Something has changed. In the past six months Robyn has sung about IVF, Lily Allen dived into her break-up, Florence Welch opened up about her pregnancy difficulties and Sophie Ellis-Bextor has tackled the menopause. \u201cWe are all laying it bare,\u201d Ware says of such similar-aged singers. <\/p>\n
\u201cMadonna made it easier for people like me to talk about desire and sex,\u201d she says. \u201cBut you have to talk about Tracey Emin<\/a> too, who\u2019s been herself unapologetically. The openness with how she talked about abortion, rape or illness? As a woman, to be so bold? She\u2019s remarkable and is one of the women who opened the conversation up \u2014 to be vulnerable.\u201d<\/p>\n I wonder what her children \u2014 two sons, one daughter, all at primary school \u2014 make of her job. \u201cWell, they are not privy to the fame thing,\u201d she says. \u201cBecause I don\u2019t have anyone camping outside my house, or tabloids writing about me. I live a normal life and do school drop-off. My kids know I sing and will come to a show, get bored, but like the sweets backstage. My daughter says, \u2018Mummy, Taylor Swift is my favourite and I like you, but Gracie Abrams beats you as well.\u2019 And it\u2019s fine. It\u2019d be f***ing weird if I was her favourite artist.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, it is hard. Ware\u2019s job takes her round the world. The new song 16 Summers tackles this head-on. \u201cI was having a chat with a podcast guest about how you only get 16 summers with your kids,\u201d she explains. \u201cAnd I thought, \u2018My God, that\u2019s bleak.\u2019\u201d Which sage-like guest? \u201cJason Manford!\u201d She laughs.<\/p>\n \u201cBut it is my biggest fear. I\u2019ve had success during the time I need to be the best version of a mother. In music, you can be pulled left, right and centre and it is gloriously exciting, but will also take you from your real life. I never allowed myself to have a proper maternity leave, which I regret \u2014 I\u2019m forever haunted by a feeling of guilt. It\u2019s a juggle and a struggle, constant negotiation. For instance, I do shorter tours. I\u2019m not willing to be away from my kids for longer than three weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAlso,\u201d she adds, quietly, \u201c16 Summers felt like a different song to me when a friend of ours passed away. She passed away six weeks after her diagnosis, so that song was therefore not necessarily about me. It was more about loving and cherishing every second with somebody. You never know when you\u2019re going to go.\u201d<\/p>\n As such, she was once asked to fly to the US on Mother\u2019s Day to be on a US chat show \u2014 she turned it down. And while on holiday in Sri Lanka, she was asked to play a New Year\u2019s Eve party in the Maldives. \u201cI thought, \u2018Maybe I could\u2026\u2019 But then I went, \u2018What am I doing? I\u2019m on holiday with my family!\u2019\u201d How does she decide the right amount of career? \u201cSam\u2019s a very good soundboard,\u201d she says. \u201cHe knows when I\u2019ve bitten off more than I can chew, or am taking the piss.\u201d<\/p>\n Ware could chat for days. People who do podcasts need to be talkative, but her knack for a seamless conversation is one reason Table Manners works \u2014 a conversation always running in her brain. We talk about how Liam Gallagher used a tribute gig to the victims of the Ariana Grande concert attack in 2017 to air his new hit, Wall of Glass. \u201cWhen everyone wanted Live Forever!\u201d Ware blurts out. \u201cActually, you couldn\u2019t have done Live Forever.\u201d She pauses. \u201cWell, you could actually.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Performing at the Baftas in FebruaryStuart Wilson\/BAFTA\/Getty Images<\/p>\n