Some Kind Of Superstar
Since we got sent the promo copy of Jamelia’s new album, I haven’t been able to get her new single, Superstar, out of my head. Every night I fall asleep humming it, and in the morning it combines with the dulcet tones of my alarm clock for a kind of crazy morning remix. I jumped at the chance of interviewing her and watching her live show at the Barbican; it would be a bit like going inside the spaceship in Close Encounters Of The Third Kind. Hopefully I would get the tune out of my head and understand this affliction, or at least stop making mashed potato figurines of Jamelia. It would have been easy perhaps, had she not been nearly so pleasant…
Nouse: Your new album retains a sort of UK garage edge but was there a temptation to make it to a very saleable, tried and tested American dynamic?
Jamelia: The type of music that I love is the type of music that I love to make. I love innovative Rn’B, something that’s different; taking stuff from other genres, rather than just Rn’B. I like so many other types of music, for instance the last album I bought was The Darkness. My taste is so wide, and I like to reflect that in my music.
N: You have the looks, the moves, the talent; Britain is pinning its hopes on you to kick Beyonce’s booty back to the States…
J: I’m actually intending to. I think definitely that a lot of UK artists have the potential to send those Americans back home. As far as I’m concerned we have so many fantastic artists over here that we don’t need the Americans. We can be the cake and the Americans can be the icing… or something. They’re not that special.
N: You work with some pretty high profile American rappers on your new record; the likes of Rah Digga and Bubba Sparxxx. What was that like?
J: Working with them was absolutely amazing. I love collaborating because I get inspired by the artist I work with and they definitely bring out a different side of me.
N: It’s good to see that an artist aiming at the mainstream pop market is writing their own material…
J: Its very, very important to me to be involved on the creative side, because I like my fans to get an idea of what Jamelia is like, you know, to meet as a person, rather than some 30 year old Swedish guy. It’s my own perspective and a lot of my personality gets into it. A lot of them won’t get to know me personally, so hopefully they can get to know me through my album.
N: You seem to have a very good ethic where your fans are concerned…
J: I definitely do not take my fans for granted and I never ever will. For me I think what a lot of artists don’t realise is that if they did not have every single last fan they would not be where they are today. And I really do appreciate that fact and maybe because this is my second time around, and I’ve learnt to appreciate them a lot more. I think it’s important to interact with them and let them know that I’ll never forget them and how I appreciate and support them as much as I do.
N: Your career has been pretty stop-start; just as you were about to make it big you had the baby…
J: I had the little girl in March 2001, but when I found out I was pregnant it was devastating, I’ll be honest, because I could not believe it. I though ‘oh my gosh’, what am I going to do? I instantly thought I was going to get dropped by my record label and that was it. That’s why I’m a lot more focussed this time around.
N: Has having a daughter changed your songwriting?
J: I’m definitely a more positive songwriter, and I really try to be inspirational when I write and because I’ve got a little girl and I’m a woman myself I just think that its very important for females to feel strong and to be strong and there’s a lot of influences around us that can make us not feel that way.
N: Who are you biggest influences as an artist?
J: I get influenced by so many things, so many people. My musical inspirations are Mary J Blige, Missy Eliot, Beverly Knight, Ms Dynamite. I love Ms Dynamite. People like my mum and my nan, my daughter, my brother’s, they inspire me.
N: You’ve been getting a lot of hype in the press lately…
J: Yeah, I guess because I’ve had the single out, and my bottom. My bottom’s been in the papers a lot recently. For my video I wore this short dress and my record company were like, “oh we need to have continuity so you have to wear the dress for all performances” and I’m so glad because I did Top Of The Pops on Wednesday and I celebrated because that’s the last time I’ll wear that dress.
N: Is that the layered, elongated tee-shirt dress?
J: Yeah, I’m trying to get away from that now.
N: I don’t know, I thought it looked alright.
J: Yeah, you would!
N: It’s definitely a selling point. Part of the Beyonce war.
J: Exactly, I’ll leave that to Beyonce. I’d like my voice to be my selling point, not my arse!
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