Jorja Smith is a favourite of Drake, who featured her on his latest album.
"Beautiful little fools, that's what us girls are destined for," sings the sublime songstress Jorja Smith. "Beautiful little fools, born to be adored."
The track and accompanying video, Beautiful Little Fools, was released this spring to mark International Women's Day. The song is a classy critique on the Hollywood standard of female attractiveness, complete with lyrical Great Gatsby references. "I feel as young girls grow up, they're slightly tainted by what the media says is 'beautiful,' and I feel like my song can be a little help to them," Smith said in a statement at the time. "We are all beautiful in our own individual and special ways."
Often compared with Rihanna and Amy Winehouse, the West Midlands native is on the fast track. Her sound is sultry, sophisticated and socially conscious – quite a package from a woman barely 20 years old. She first gained attention with the song Blue Lights (which sampled rapper Dizzee Rascal). Her follow-up A Prince was inspired by 17th-century English composer Henry Purcell.
Smith is a favourite of Drake, who featured her on his album More Life. A streetwise, long-haul thinker, she has no plans to sign with a record label just yet. Time is on her side. She's no one's little fool.
Jorja Smith plays the Velvet Underground, Aug. 24, 8 p.m. $22.50 (sold out). 508 Queen St. W., 855-985-5000 or ticketmaster.ca
Brad Wheeler