Jess Glynne

With support from RAYE.

Who knew a trip to Pizza Express could inform a young teenagers life so greatly? One evening in 2003, Jess Glynne’s parents returned home from a night in Soho with a signed CD by a new singer they had seen performing at the restaurant’s regular Jazz night. “It had such a profoundly immediate effect on me,” remembers Jess of her parents playing Amy Winehouse’s debut album, ‘Frank’. “I’d always loved the big pop vocals of Mariah, Beyoncé and Whitney, but hearing a woman’s voice that was basically a jazz vocal, so full of individuality? Then realising she was British and still a teenager? That was the moment I knew I wanted to be a singer too.”

Glynne is a woman in possession of a rather fantastically distinctive vocal herself. You’ve already heard the 24 year-old’s richly evocative voice on Clean Bandit’s No.1 classical-dance smash ‘Rather Be’, which is the highest selling January No.1 since 1996 with sales in the UK alone of over 600,000, earning platinum status.

“I know that I’m one of a number of British girls to release this year,” says Jess. “But I’m confident in who I am. What makes me different is my experiences, my personality, my songwriting. I’ve had different life experiences, like we all have, and all of that makes me who I am – me.”