There's a new Jessie in town … meet soul sensation Jessie Ware

…and this one is friends with Adele, loved by Tinie Tempah and ditched a job with Fifty Shades author EL James to become the sound of London’s summer. Does Jessie Ware have what it takes to top the charts? 110%, says Craig McLean
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Craig McLean5 December 2012

You may already recognise sparkling new singer Jessie Ware, the Londoner responsible for the song-of-the-so-called- summer, skippy soul crowd-pleaser ‘110%’. Or maybe you caught that Adele concert DVD, shot at the Royal Albert Hall? There was a moment when Adele pointed out her friend, the poet Laura Dockrill, sitting in the audience. She said that the pair of them had fallen out a while back, and credited the girl sitting next to Laura with getting all UN Peace Mission on their asses and reuniting them. That was Jessie Ware, too, sliding, mortified, into her seat.

At the time Ware was a backing-vocalist-for-hire, the big-lunged, icing-on-the-cake on tracks for Man Like Me, SBTRKT, the Rinse FM posse, DJ Joker and Sampha, as well as a one-time backing vocalist/right-hand woman for her old friend, South London ‘alt’ troubadour Jack Peñate. ‘Laura is a really good friend of mine, and her husband is my manager,’ explains Ware, who knows Adele through Peñate, and is also old friends with The Maccabees, and a former Alleyn’s schoolmate of Florence Welch. ‘Adele and Laura were mates from The BRIT School, but they fell out years and years ago. Then Adele and I were at a New Year’s Eve party together. I’d been writing with Laura and she was really sweet at the beginning of me doing music; she really helped me to be creative, because I was such a nervous wreck when I started writing my own songs… And I said to Adele at this party, “I’m spending so much time with Laura and she really misses you.” And Adele was like, “Oh, I miss her, too…” And I said, “You really should [get in touch],” and that was it. She went and saw Laura, and they became best friends again. It was,’ concludes the South London music mafia’s Ban Ki-moon, ‘really nice.’

Jessie’s sister Hannah, a former model, is equally well connected. She’s currently starring in Boss, a critically acclaimed new American drama, in which she plays the corrupt Chicago mayor’s (played by Kelsey Grammer) estranged daughter. ‘It feels like Kelsey’s playing King Lear,’ Ware beams, still tickled at being taken for lunch by Grammer when she visited her sister on set in Chicago. Jessie never wanted to follow in her sister’s starry footsteps; instead, as a Manchester United nut, being a tabloid football reporter was the teenage Ware’s dream. ‘I love how tabloids write,’ enthuses the youngest daughter of Panorama journalist John Ware, now with an English Literature degree from Sussex under her belt. ‘It’s to-the-point, it’s universal, and it’s immediate. And I’m not a very wordy person,’ she lies, ‘so I think I probably thought I’d suit that side of it.’

Now, after all those instances of being just to the left of the spotlight, Jessie Ware is standing centre-stage. Red-top journalism’s loss is music’s gain as she prepares to release her debut album, Devotion. Contrary to her clubby credentials, it’s a collection of largely downtempo soul tunes, more vintage 1990s grooves than zeitgeist-stamping post-dubstep. Meanwhile, the gently euphoric ‘110%’ is busy bringing the sunshine where the actual heavens are failing us.

We meet at lunchtime in Kensington, three days after the Hackney Weekend. Ware is still buzzing. Not least because she had the honour of being first on stage on the opening day of the Radio 1 festival on Hackney Marshes. ‘Oh, it was wicked,’ beams the 27-year-old. ‘I had such a good time. Because I was the first one on, I like to think of that as me cutting the ribbon on the event. It was really great. I was so happy to be added to the line-up, and to be on the In New Music We Trust stage, which felt nice. The line-ups there were brilliant.’

Also on that breaking-talent stage were Hackney four-piece Rudimental, riding high after their recent number one, ‘Feel the Love’. Ware’s friend manages them — he also managed Man Like Me. ‘It just felt really good,’ Ware continues, still beaming. ‘Rudimental and I had dressing rooms next to each other. And we all kind of went, “We’ve done all right, haven’t we?”, like we were patting each other on the back… I thought, “This is weird — we’re not playing a Wetherspoon’s pub in Leeds any more!” ’

Sporting a summery frock and shiny ponytail, Jessie fits right in among the well-heeled lunchers in Le Pain Quotidien. As she should, being one of the hottest young musicians in the capital. Tinie Tempah and Daisy Lowe have both professed their Twitter-love for ‘110%’, while J Cole, Drake, Ellie Goulding and Wild Beasts have all outed themselves as fans. She is also, rather mind-bogglingly, linked to the publishing sensation of the year.

As a PA she used to work alongside Fifty Shades of Grey author Erika Leonard at the TV company Love Productions. ‘She came back from the Christmas holidays and I said, “Erika, you’ve lost loads of weight, are you all right?” And she went, “I’m in love…” And I said, “Your husband? Your children?” And she said, “Twilight…” She then started writing — she couldn’t stop. She couldn’t eat, she was so consumed…’ Fan fiction turned into her own soaraway, sexual fantasy novel.

‘She left her job; we were friends on Facebook, and I could see she was part of those Twi-hards. Next thing I know, it’s her on Good Morning America, the author of Fifty Shades of Grey, this erotic novelist who’s a bestseller. But I was there when she decided to be an author — I sat opposite her!’ Ware laughs at the memory. Then she blushes. ‘She used to ask me to read some of her chapters. It was really racy, it made me quite flushed. It was about… not members, but…’ She tails off, coming over all prudish. ‘That’s a f***ing great story. And now she’s gonna get Robert Pattinson in the film — that’s what I’ve heard anyway.’

There’s just one burning question for the best-connected newcomer around, who recently moved into a Brixton flat with her long-term boyfriend Sam, a teacher. Should she make like Emeli (née Adele) Sandé and change her name? ‘I was introduced by Sara Cox on Radio 1 as Jessie J. And everyone went, “Ooh…” And she was like, “Have you heard that before?” But actually she was the first… I should have been Jessica, shouldn’t I? Or J-Ware. Or J-Dubz. Or Je Ware,’ she says, going all French, ‘like La Roux!’ Hmm. They all sound rubbish. Is there, then, room for two Jessies in pop? ‘I hope so!’ yells the smartest new star of the year. ‘Otherwise I’m f***ed, aren’t I?’

Jessie Ware plays London's Shepherds Bush Empire on March 13/14

Photographs by Emma Sweeney

Styled by Orsolya Szabo

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