Jorja Smith

Born in Walsall, West Midlands, England, Jorja Smith developed early songwriting rooted in contemporary R&B, soul, pop and with touches of hip-hop, grime and UK garage. Trained in piano and voice, she began releasing her first tracks in the mid-2010s after leaving her hometown for London, where she wrote with artists including Maverick Sabre and Ed Thomas. Jorja Smith’s emergence crystallized in 2016 with “Blue Lights” and the EP Project 11 the same year. In 2017, her appearance on Drake’s More Life, along with tracks like “Teenage Fantasy” and “On My Mind” with Preditah, established her within a British landscape where R&B, rap and urban music intersect. Her debut album, Lost & Found (2018), showcases a supple, direct vocal delivered over understated productions and lyrics focused on relationships, youth and social tensions. She went on to collaborate with Stormzy, Kali Uchis, Burna Boy and Popcaan, released the EP Be Right Back in 2021, and her second album Falling or Flying in 2023, where her repertoire opened further to dance, garage and electronic textures while retaining her soul roots.