The parable of Jess Glynne: success, oblivion, redemption

Maybe his name won’t mean anything to you. Yet it will be enough for you to listen to the refrains of some of the songs which, thanks also to his timbre, to that distinctive vibrato, have become hits, to realize that Jess Glynne is not exactly an anonymous pop star. Starting from that “Rather be” that in 2014, together with Clean Banditcatapulted her to the top of the international charts and represented the first step in her climb to success: “I thought it was a good song, but for me it was just a one day studio session”, says the British singer-songwriter today, with a contemptuous tone. Glynne made history becoming the first British solo artist to reach the top of the weekly UK singles chart seven times between 2013 and 2018 In order: “My love”, “Rather be”, “Not letting go”, “Hold my hand”, “Don’t be so hard on yourself”, “I’ll be there” and “These days”.

.Thus Jess Glynne left an even deeper imprint on the charts than that of her heroines such as Amy Winehouse and Adele, but also Kate Bush, Sade, Annie Lennox and any other British solo artist everracking up 1.2 billion streams across platforms. Yet in the last five years, spent almost entirely away from the spotlight, the redhead British singer-songwriter, who will be in concert tonight at the Tuscan Santeria from Milan with the only Italian date of the tour linked to his new album “Jess”released in April, he seriously considered giving it all up forever: “I was deeply unhappy. I felt I was only seen as a product, not as a human being.”

At the end of the 2019 world tour Glynne felt “exhausted”. The pop star was admitted to a hospital for a crisis and today remembers: “I didn’t want to see a microphone anymore”. So, to regain mental health, he planned a short break which then, due to Covid, turned out to be a much longer stop: “I had always thought of only taking a six-month break and in the end it was like four, five years . Which is crazy, but that’s life. After touring for seven years non-stop, releasing, touring everywhere, I think I just needed to live my life, breathe and be with my family, with my friends, go to the movies, go out to dinner, walk on the streets and just be free. In that process, I think I fell in love with music again because I started listening to old records, things that inspired me before I even started being a singer. I was inspired again and felt reinvigorated to get back into the studio and try new things,” she confessed when bringing Vanyland.

It was a song that unlocked it, “Enough”, which in an interview with the British newspaper The Telegraph he described as “a piece I wrote to protect myself after all the shit I’ve been through”. She composed it while living alone in Los Angeles, feeling “really depressed and lost and alone,” listening to Joni Mitchell on loop and crying “because I didn’t know how to express myself”.

The piece was produced by Greg Kurstin, Adele’s former right-hand man: “I have wanted to work with Greg since the beginning of my career. I have always admired Adele and what she has done with her is incredible. So just the fact that he liked what I did flattered me, made me feel like I’m good enough.” After breaking up with Atlantic, part of the Warner group, Glynne signed a new contract with Emi, part of the Universal group. .Jay-Z with his Roc Nation took her under his wing: “They made me feel important. Jay-Z is a very funny, very warm man. One time we were watching Beyoncé’s show and the last thing she said to me before she left was, ‘Now it’s your turn. It’s your turn’”.

In the album cover image, in black and white, Jess Glynne is immersed in water and wearing a see-through bikini. Even in the photos shared on social media the pop star seems to have chosen to represent herself in a more sexually explicit way than in the past: “I was really in a very limited bubble within my team – he says – I was honestly told: ‘You can’t be sexy, you have to be recognisable’. For a long time, I was humiliated or made to feel like I couldn’t be sexy. And so I was insecure about these things”. And again: “I’ve been pulled in many different directions: I’ve been told I’m not allowed to do this; I have to put this on and go there; I have to be that; I can’t say this and I can’t do that. This industry loves to pit women against each other, as if you are competing over who is the best dressed, who looks the best, or who sounds the best. It’s really sad, actually. It is the downfall of so many women.”

In the new album, titled simply like his name, which he will present live to the Italian public tonight, Jess Glynne talks about his maturity and his awareness: “I feel like it was the first time in my career that I was completely, authentically myself in the creative process I was given so much freedom in writing, in singing, in discovering what I wanted to put on the record.

And I think when it came to naming it, at first, ‘Jess’ just seemed to make sense with the message, the lyrics, the vulnerability, the honesty. I think there could have been another name, but to me it felt right, and I always follow my instincts I think it was a grace period for me, not having anyone trying to control me.”