As the crowd roars, and an eight-piece band gathers close, Jorja Smith appears cautious, maybe guarded. Even the singer’s opening gambit Try Me throws up a challenge: “I say your mind’s made up on me,” she sighs, her voice silky.
This is Smith’s first UK tour since 2018, when, at just 21, her raw, atmospheric debut album won Grammy and Mercury nominations, Brit awards and a host of celebrity fans. Glitzy features with Drake, Stormzy and Burna Boy followed, but otherwise Smith resisted the playbook for sudden fame. She left London for home town Walsall, spent five years on her follow-up album, 2023’s pointedly titled Falling or Flying, and only now, another two years later, is she touring those songs.
