Biography
Jorja Alice Smith is an English singer-songwriter. Born and raised in Walsall, West Midlands, she has been writing songs since the age of 11.she got raised with her Jamaican father and her English mother.Her father Peter, a benefits officer, is a former musician who sang in a neo-soul group called 2nd Naicha before Smith was born, and her mother, Jolene, is a jewellery designer.Smith has a younger brother, Luca, and is the cousin of Rangers player Kemar Roofe.
Early Life
She began taking piano lessons at the age of 8 at the encouragement of her father.Smith earned a music scholarship at Aldridge School, where she learned the oboe and studied classical singing, before taking music for her A-level exams.She was scouted by a manager at the age of 15 after uploading videos of herself singing cover songs on YouTube.Shortly after, she began travelling to London for writing sessions with Maverick Sabre and Ed Thomas, while still in school.After graduation, she moved to London at the age of 18 where she supported herself by working as a barista at Starbucks, and continued to write songs.
Career
In Late 2015, Maverick Sabre co-signed Smith publicly.Jorja moved in with an aunt and uncle in London. She got a job at Starbucks and recorded lyrics into her phone on breaks, confidently telling customers: “I’m going to be a singer, you know.” In January 2016, she posted her song Blue Lights on to streaming website SoundCloud.
The track, about preconceptions among young black men, was later nominated for Best Song at that year’s Mobo awards.the song garnered 400,000 plays on the website within a month.Her second single “Where Did I Go?”, released in May, was singled out by Drake as his favourite track of the moment in Entertainment Weekly in July.Following the worldwide recognition and exposure Smith gained from Drake, Smith caught the attention of Guy Moot. Moot, an executive and worldwide creative at Sony/ATV with mainstream industry connections, signed Smith to a publishing deal in late 2016.In November 2016, she released her four-track debut extended play, Project 11.The same month, Smith was selected as one of the fifteen rising acts on BBC Music’s Sound of 2017 longlist, and finished fourth on the list.
Repeatable
Jorja Smith’s popularity seem to come from her talent in singing and songwriting and her journey is repeatable since she blew up on YouTube first and her songs got picked up by producers and even singers collaborating with her and leading her to a greater success.
links
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jorja_Smith
https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/6495948/jorja-smith-rise-to-fame-brit-awards/amp/