{"id":823168,"date":"2026-08-23T13:16:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-23T13:16:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/823168\/"},"modified":"2026-08-23T13:16:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-23T13:16:11","slug":"so-many-people-say-things-about-my-appearance-its-not-normal-jorja-smith-on-burnout-body-shaming-and-finding-freedom-jorja-smith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/823168\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018So many people say things about my appearance \u2013 it\u2019s not normal\u2019: Jorja Smith on burnout, body-shaming and finding freedom | Jorja Smith"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is a sticky, sweltering July afternoon, and I have accidentally found myself at a wake with Jorja Smith<\/a>. I\u2019m told that the pub where we have met, in the leafiest part of leafy south-west London, is usually a safe bet for an inconspicuous table. But today, sweaty black suits carrying pints drift between tables, and long queues snake round the bar.<\/p>\n

Dressed in a simple tank top, bare-faced with her hair scraped back, Smith is waiting for me when I arrive. \u201cI\u2019ve been waiting for my drink for ages,\u201d she says. \u201cBut I feel bad saying anything because, you know \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

The sombre mood doesn\u2019t last long \u2013 in large part because Smith is effortlessly funny. When her alcohol-free sparkling wine finally arrives, she takes one sip, pauses for the waitress to disappear, then winces theatrically. \u201cOh,\u201d she says. \u201cThat\u2019s not good.\u201d Every time we dissolve into laughter, I glance around guiltily, like we\u2019re schoolgirls trying not to get caught talking at the back of assembly.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to imagine a less appropriate setting in which to discuss an album made for sunburnt block parties and 2am raves. What Are the Odds, the 29-year-old\u2019s third album, released this week, is a certified, old-fashioned ass-shaker. Made with Richard Isong \u2013 the London producer better known as P2J, whose credits include Beyonc\u00e9, Burna Boy and Tems \u2013 and featuring the likes of Wizkid and Devlin, it is a vibrant collage of Black British dance music, weaving together UK garage, funky house, 2-step and Afrobeats, into a 12-track collection that pulsates from top to bottom.<\/p>\n

double quotation markI went straight to my label and said: \u2018I think this is an album, not an EP. This is serious.\u2019 I am so excited about it<\/p>\n

While dance music has always been threaded through Smith\u2019s catalogue, usually in the form of a summer single \u2013 On My Mind in 2017, Little Things in 2023 \u2013 she is better known for her introspective, soulful R&B, as epitomised by her 2016 breakout single Blue Lights (which NME praised as<\/a> \u201ca fantastically introspective and clever piece of songwriting\u201d, and had critics declaring her Amy Winehouse\u2019s successor<\/a>). This is the first time she has committed fully to the dancefloor.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just love dancing,\u201d Smith shrugs. \u201cI like going out to listen to music, a lot of my friends are DJs. It\u2019d be nice to hear more of my stuff when I\u2019m outside.\u201d<\/p>\n

The genesis of this album was different to her previous records. Her Mercury prize-nominated debut album, Lost & Found, emerged because she felt it was time to make an album. Its successor, Falling Or Flying, arrived because she felt she \u201cneeded\u201d a second one. What Are the Odds was made almost accidentally, which is perhaps why it feels so light on its feet.<\/p>\n

After making the effervescent club single Little Things with P2J, the pair initially planned to write a dance EP. But the songs kept coming, and the project outgrew itself. \u201cWe went through nine songs in the first two days,\u201d Smith says, her eyes widening again at the memory. \u201cI turned up to the studio and he\u2019d made all this music from our conversations. I left and went straight to my label and said: \u2018I think this is an album, not an EP. This is serious.\u2019 I\u2019m so excited about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Odds on \u2026 Jorja Smith. Photograph: Ivor Lawson-Adamah<\/p>\n

The album may be created for the dancefloor, but its emotional resonance remains unmistakably Smith. For Life mourns losing a friend to addiction; Young Heart is a love letter to Smith\u2019s younger self; The Way It Was meditates on the end of a friendship. \u201cIf you just sang the songs with keys or piano,\u201d she says, \u201cthey\u2019d all probably be quite sad.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is tempting to read What Are the Odds as a comeback album. In the weeks before its release, various headlines have announced Smith\u2019s \u201creturn\u201d. When I begin to ask her about this supposed break, she cuts in incredulously. \u201cPeople keep saying, \u2018Oh, you\u2019re back!\u2019 What do you mean, back? I\u2019ve been on tour since 2017. When people say that, I\u2019m like \u2026 [you should] check my calendar! People are likely talking about a \u2018comeback\u2019,\u201d she says, \u201cbecause I\u2019m back on social media. I take breaks, and I\u2019m not always out at events and things.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an astute observation, and one that cuts to the heart of Smith\u2019s unconventional relationship with celebrity. Since Blue Lights announced her arrival as an 18-year-old in 2016, she has become one of British music\u2019s defining voices: a Mercury and Grammy nominee, double Brit award winner, and a featured artist capable of surfacing everywhere from Drake\u2019s More Life to Burna Boy\u2019s African Giant. Yet, she has never cultivated the kind of omnipresent celebrity that feels almost compulsory in the social media age, where visibility seems synonymous with existence. There are no carefully choreographed glimpses into her morning routine, no sense that her life exists to be consumed. Smith has clearly never been especially interested in that side of the bargain.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never wanted to be famous,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019ve always been quite private. I just wanted to put music out as a teenager and see what happened. I feel really lucky that I\u2019ve got such an amazing fanbase and people really show me love, but fame was never the goal.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The tension, of course, is that success increasingly lives or dies by the algorithm. The defining British stars of recent years \u2013 PinkPantheress, Raye, Lola Young \u2013 have all been, in some part, forged in the fires of TikTok. Does Smith ever feel pressure to play that game? \u201cYeah definitely,\u201d she says. \u201cBut, luckily, I\u2019ve got a sick team, and we come up with ideas that we can do that are still me. I don\u2019t want to be here doing trends \u2013 you\u2019re not going to catch me doing TikTok dances or any of that stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her inclination to privacy also stems from growing up under an unusually unforgiving spotlight. Smith first found an audience by uploading covers to YouTube, recorded from her bedroom in Walsall. Aged 15, she signed with a manager, and began making regular trips to London for songwriting sessions. After finishing her A-levels, she moved to the capital full-time, working shifts in a cafe while trying to carve out a career in music.<\/p>\n

Blue Lights, which hauntingly paired Smith\u2019s mellifluous voice with lyrics about police profiling and urban anxiety, landed on SoundCloud in 2016, instantly establishing her as one of the most compelling new voices in British music. The following year, Drake invited her on to his blockbuster playlist, More Life, exposing her to millions of listeners around the world.<\/p>\n

Alongside the acclaim, though, came another kind of attention. Almost overnight, Smith became a symbol of a modern beauty ideal, often uncomfortably sexualised before she had properly entered adulthood. For years, the conversation around Jorja Smith the musician existed alongside another conversation entirely, one that Smith had no control over: that of Jorja Smith the face, Jorja Smith the body. \u201cIt\u2019s not normal,\u201d she says, reflecting on that time. \u201cGrowing up and having so many people having something to say about your appearance.\u201d<\/p>\n

The internet, as it tends to do, eventually turned. In the run-up to the release of Falling Or Flying in 2023, every online photo or video seemed to invite commentary on her weight. At one point, the phrase \u201cJorja Smith weight gain\u201d trended on X for two days. It is something she brings up without prompting.<\/p>\n

Jorja Smith picks up the Best British female solo artist award at the Brits in 2019. Photograph: Karwai Tang\/WireImage<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was difficult. I\u2019d be reading things like: \u2018What happened to her?\u2019 Or, \u2018She\u2019s let herself go.\u2019\u201d She trails off. \u201cIt really knocks your confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n

On one occasion, she couldn\u2019t resist replying. \u201cSome blog page\u201d\u2013 she waves away the name \u2013 \u201chad put two photos side by side, like a before and after. I just commented: \u2018What the hell, guys? I\u2019m literally 18 in that picture. Why are you doing that?\u2019\u201d She shrugs. \u201cPeople are so quick. They love you, then they hate you.\u201d<\/p>\n

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What made that period particularly disorientating, she says, was that the public narrative bore almost no resemblance to reality; at the very moment strangers were dissecting her body online, she felt healthier than ever.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d actually started eating properly,\u201d she says. \u201cBefore that, I\u2019d be so busy I\u2019d skip meals, wake up late, I was running every day, obsessively. It was the first time I actually felt healthy, and then people wanted to criticise me? It was a proper headfuck because I was thinking: Wait \u2026 can I do anything right?\u201d<\/p>\n

For a while, she stopped wanting to do photoshoots, or even go outside for fear of being photographed. \u201cI sort of went into myself,\u201d she says. \u201cI felt like no one could really understand what I was going through.\u201d Her coping mechanisms, she says, are to go for a walk or to the gym, though she catches herself revealing how fragile that equilibrium can still be.<\/p>\n

double quotation markI\u2019m feeling the buzz of what London has to offer again, instead of feeling as if I have to wear armour all the time<\/p>\n

Sometimes she\u2019ll still \u201csee comments \u2026 and start thinking: Maybe they\u2019re right?\u201d She stops herself mid-thought. \u201cOh my God,\u201d she says, laughing in disbelief. \u201cEven me saying that now is crazy. Because they\u2019re just random people!<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I have my days,\u201d she continues. \u201cI was talking to my mum about it the other day, and she was like: \u2018At least they\u2019re not saying you sound shit!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the ways she\u2019s protected herself is by stepping away from those online platforms. She no longer runs her own social media \u2013 her team posts on Instagram, and she only keeps the app to message artists and friends. She hasn\u2019t been on X in years, and never goes looking for commentary about herself.<\/p>\n

Part of that self-reclamation meant physically removing herself, too. In 2023, after years in London, she moved back to Walsall \u2013 an unusual move for an artist at the height of their career. \u201cI just needed a reset,\u201d she says. \u201cI thought: Let me move back home, touch some grass, see some trees.\u201d London, she says, had become tangled up with the pressures of her career. This City, one of the tracks on What Are the Odds, explores her love-hate relationship with the capital. \u201cAnything negative that happened, I kind of put London as the culprit,\u201d she says. \u201cI was like: \u2018I hate this place. I need to get out.\u2019\u201d Distance has since softened London\u2019s hard edges, and today, she divides her time between the West Midlands and the capital: \u201cI\u2019m feeling the buzz of what this place has to offer again, instead of feeling as if I have to wear armour all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

She is fiercely protective, too, of the place she comes from. In an industry so often centred on London, she is keen to keep reminding people that remarkable artists also emerge from elsewhere. \u201cPeople forget I\u2019m not from London,\u201d she laughs. \u201cAnd I\u2019m not from Birmingham, either!\u201d In September, Smith will return to Walsall for a home town show at Walsall Arena, a school turned community arts space she used to visit as a girl. Part of Spotify\u2019s Hometown Billboard campaign, the bill doubles as a showcase of local talent: childhood friend Wesley Joseph, with whom she released the single July this year, supports, alongside the Blue Lights Choir she founded to create opportunities for young people in the town. \u201cI hope it\u2019s a moment that inspires the next generation to believe that big things really can come from Walsall,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

These days, when she isn\u2019t working, she is trying to build a life that exists beyond music. She walks, cooks and has rediscovered running. \u201cI\u2019ve signed up for the London marathon next year,\u201d she says. \u201cI wanted a goal, and I watched everyone finishing it this year and thought: That\u2019s such a sick thing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite her instinct to retreat from the spotlight, Smith is also consciously trying to step back into the world. Recently, she was on the phone with a friend back home when she mentioned turning down an invitation to a Vogue party. Her friend wouldn\u2019t let it slide. \u201cShe was like, \u2018Go! Not everyone gets invited to these things. You only live once. If you keep turning everything down, you\u2019re going to be 70 and have zero stories of fun nights out because you never went anywhere!\u2019\u201d she laughs.<\/p>\n

Outside, the heat hasn\u2019t lifted. Mourners are still in the beer garden. As she gets up to leave, Smith pulls a cap low over her face and slides on a pair of oversized sunglasses. Until that moment, it has been surprisingly easy to forget that she is famous at all.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all about finding that balance,\u201d she says, smiling as she stands. \u201cBut I\u2019m feeling good. I\u2019m starting to feel like my younger self again.\u201d<\/p>\n

What Are the Odds is out now on FAMM. Jorja Smith performs at Walsall Arena on 6 September.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is a sticky, sweltering July afternoon, and I have accidentally found myself at a wake with Jorja…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":823169,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[236,88],"class_list":["post-823168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/823168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=823168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/823168\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/823169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=823168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=823168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=823168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}