They make it work (Picture: Metro.co.uk / Getty)
It’s all about heat for Jess Glynne right now.
After all, there’s no getting away from the fact that the flame-haired north London singer is the sound of the summer – you may have heard her song Hold My Hand calling you to book your next holiday.
But it’s not just because of that.
The 34-year-old has a hot album – JESS – a hot girlfriend in former Lioness Alex Scott, some hot summer dates lined up and a new single Summer’s Back.
In 60 Seconds Jess talks to Metro about vulnerability, confidence, loss and finding balance by putting in the work.
How’s your summer been so far?
Great. The shows have been amazing and I’m enjoying having a new album out.
People associate you with summer, don’t they? Could it be a certain Hold My Hand holiday advert?
It really makes me laugh. With the new song, Summer’s Back, it’s like, ‘remind people that you’re about summer…’
You’re doing festivals this year…
I’m only doing two more. I’m planning next year as my festival year. With my album just coming out pre-summer, I like the idea of doing a festival when people have had a chance to sit with your music.
The shows have had amazing reviews.
(Picture: Joseph Okpako/WireImage)
Such good shows – such fun! I don’t like doing anything by halves and I haven’t been out there doing shows for literally years so I was always really going to go for it.
The world is a heavy place at the moment and I just want people to come and have a good experience and that when I walk out on stage, all they can think about is being there.
Were you a big festivalgoer when you were younger?
I did go to a lot of festivals. I used to work for this alcohol company and basically started out as a shot girl.
To make it sound pretty they called it ‘brand experience’. It was more fun being the shot girl. When you become the manager it’s all packing up things and late nights. It really put me off alcohol.
I stopped drinking. And as a girl you’re in quite a vulnerable position but it was really fun and I thought, ‘This is my back-up plan so I’ve got to stick at it.’ It was going to be that or music.
This third album is amazing. Proper songs.
Jess used to hate being on stage but now she feels confident (Picture: Warren Little/Getty Images)
I like that! ‘Proper songs.’ For me it’s always been a thing to tell a story. I was just saying to my manager how much I love this summer record and had been missing the sort of music I’d done in the past and he said, ‘When you were writing this album, you were going through a lot. You weren’t happy for a lot of it and you’d lost a friend, and you weren’t in your best place.’
Now I’m in a really good place. When I was writing the album, I was in a serious, vulnerable, more emotional space and I do think some of the songs are the best I’ve ever written.
Listening to the album from start to finish, it feels really wholesome and really diverse, like a story with a lot of feeling in it – and being back on stage is making me feel really creative.
When you’re out of the limelight for five years, are you lying in bed every day?
Jess has been mending from loss (Credits: PA Wire)
Ha! I was working really hard! I finished my tour in 2019, then it was Covid, then we got locked down and I actually chose not to work at that point. And I’d been at it for like seven years, so I just thought, I’m going to take a break.
When I came out of that I went straight back into the studio. Then I went to America and have been there a long time, writing. It wasn’t a lot of sitting down. And I lost someone really close to me and that took a couple of months out of my life. It was quite a traumatic loss and I couldn’t leave the house for a couple of months.
Did you get help with that?
A lot. Meeting my therapist at that time was the best thing that ever happened to me, she changed my life, helped me become a well-structured human being [laughs].
Silver linings.
Yeah, exactly. Then at the beginning of ’22 I went back to America and got an apartment and set up a stable situation.
How does the long-distance thing work with your girlfriend, Alex Scott?
Jess and Alex were first romantically linked back in May 2023 (Picture: Cindy Ord/amFAR/Getty Images)
We weren’t together then but it’s kind of mad when you’ve got two people with really busy schedules – but you just make it work.
You sound really happy now.
I am happy, I feel like I’ve found a really good balance in my life. I’ve got support in my family, my business, my partner, everyone around me.
I’ll never forget being on stage the last time round and being so desperate to get off stage. Now I can’t tell you how much I am loving being there. I’ve never felt this level of confidence and security on stage.
When you put the work into yourself, it makes such a difference.
Jess Glynne performs at the Crystal Palace Bowl on Aug 9.
Tickets are available through Ticketmaster. The album JESS is out now.