Jorja Smith's third album, What Are the Odds, released this week, is a vibrant collection of Black British dance music, weaving UK garage, funky house, 2-step and Afrobeats into a 12-track set. Made with London producer Richard Isong (P2J), whose credits include Beyoncé, Burna Boy and Tems, and featuring Wizkid and Devlin, it marks the 29-year-old's first full commitment to the dancefloor.
Smith, who rose to fame with the 2016 breakout single Blue Lights, is better known for introspective, soulful R&B. The new album's genesis was different: after making the club single Little Things with P2J, the pair planned a dance EP, but the project outgrew itself. "We went through nine songs in the first two days," Smith says. "I turned up to the studio and he'd made all this music from our conversations. I left and went straight to my label and said: 'I think this is an album, not an EP. This is serious.'"
Emotional resonance and a "comeback"
Despite the dancefloor focus, the album's emotional core remains unmistakably Smith. For Life mourns losing a friend to addiction; Young Heart is a love letter to her younger self; The Way It Was meditates on the end of a friendship. "If you just sang the songs with keys or piano," she says, "they'd all probably be quite sad."
In the weeks before release, headlines announced Smith's "return". She rejects the framing: "People keep saying, 'Oh, you're back!' What do you mean, back? I've been on tour since 2017. When people say that, I'm like … [you should] check my calendar! People are likely talking about a 'comeback' because I'm back on social media. I take breaks, and I'm not always out at events and things."
Fame, privacy and body-shaming
Smith has never cultivated the omnipresent celebrity that feels compulsory in the social media age. "I never wanted to be famous," she says. "I've always been quite private. I just wanted to put music out as a teenager and see what happened. I feel really lucky that I've got such an amazing fanbase and people really show me love, but fame was never the goal." She acknowledges pressure to engage with platforms like TikTok: "Yeah definitely. But, luckily, I've got a sick team, and we come up with ideas that we can do that are still me. I don't want to be here doing trends – you're not going to catch me doing TikTok dances or any of that stuff."
Growing up under scrutiny, Smith faced commentary on her appearance from a young age. In the run-up to Falling Or Flying in 2023, online commentary about her weight trended on X for two days. "It was difficult. I'd be reading things like: 'What happened to her?' Or, 'She's let herself go.' It really knocks your confidence." She recalls replying to a blog page that posted a before-and-after: "I just commented: 'What the hell, guys? I'm literally 18 in that picture. Why are you doing that?' People are so quick. They love you, then they hate you."
The public narrative bore no resemblance to reality, she says: at that moment she felt healthier than ever. "I'd actually started eating properly. Before that, I'd be so busy I'd skip meals, wake up late, I was running every day, obsessively. It was the first time I actually felt healthy, and then people wanted to criticise me? It was a proper headfuck." She stopped wanting to do photoshoots or go outside for fear of being photographed. "I sort of went into myself," she says. "I felt like no one could really understand what I was going through."
Finding balance and a home town show
Smith has protected herself by stepping away from online platforms: her team posts on Instagram, she hasn't been on X in years, and she no longer runs her own social media. In 2023, after years in London, she moved back to Walsall. "I just needed a reset," she says. "I thought: Let me move back home, touch some grass, see some trees." London had become tangled up with career pressures; This City on the new album explores her love-hate relationship with the capital. Today, she divides her time between the West Midlands and London: "I'm feeling the buzz of what this place has to offer again, instead of feeling as if I have to wear armour all the time."
In September, Smith will return to Walsall for a home town show at Walsall Arena, a school turned community arts space she visited as a girl. Part of Spotify's Hometown Billboard campaign, the bill doubles as a showcase of local talent: childhood friend Wesley Joseph supports, alongside the Blue Lights Choir she founded. "I hope it's a moment that inspires the next generation to believe that big things really can come from Walsall," she says.
She has also signed up for the London marathon next year: "I wanted a goal, and I watched everyone finishing it this year and thought: That's such a sick thing to do." Despite her instinct to retreat, she is consciously stepping back into the world, encouraged by a friend's reminder: "If you keep turning everything down, you're going to be 70 and have zero stories of fun nights out because you never went anywhere!" As she leaves, she pulls a cap low and slides on oversized sunglasses. "It's all about finding that balance," she says, smiling. "But I'm feeling good. I'm starting to feel like my younger self again."
