18 Facts About Jorja Smith

1.

Jorja Alice Smith was born on 11 June 1997 and is an English singer-songwriter.

2.

Jorja Smith was born on 11 June 1997 in Walsall, West Midlands, to a Jamaican father and an English mother.

3.

Jorja Smith's 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.

4.

Jorja Smith began taking piano lessons at the age of 8 at the encouragement of her father.

5.

Jorja 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.

6.

Jorja Smith was scouted by a manager at the age of 15 after uploading videos of herself singing cover songs on YouTube.

7.

In January 2016, Jorja Smith released her debut single "Blue Lights", which samples Dizzee Rascal's song "Sirens", on SoundCloud; the song garnered 400,000 plays on the website within a month.

8.

Jorja Smith performed as a special guest on Drake's Boy Meets World Tour in February and March 2017, and featured on two tracks on his mixtape More Life.

9.

Jorja Smith released the song "Beautiful Little Fools" on International Women's Day; the title is a reference to the novel The Great Gatsby.

10.

Jorja Smith performed as the opening act on Bruno Mars' 24K Magic World Tour in October and November 2017.

11.

In December, it was announced that Jorja Smith would be the recipient of the Brit Critics' Choice Award, to be presented at the Brits nominations launch on 13 January 2018.

12.

Jorja Smith is the first independent artist to have been nominated for the award, let alone win.

13.

In 2019, Jorja Smith announced a co-headlining North American tour with Kali Uchis starting on 28 April in Washington, DC and concluding in Toronto on 30 May In August 2019, Jorja Smith released the single "Be Honest" featuring Burna Boy.

14.

Jorja Smith released two singles that year: "By Any Means" and "Come Over" featuring Popcaan.

15.

On 11 May 2023, Jorja Smith released the single "Little Things" which peaked at number 95 on the UK Singles Downloads Chart Top 100 on 19 May 2023.

16.

On 18 May 2023, Jorja Smith announced that her next studio album, Falling or Flying, would be released in September 2023.

17.

Jorja Smith describes being "obsessed" with Amy Winehouse's 2003 debut album Frank as a teenager and was inspired by the singer's raw approach to songwriting.

18.

Style wise, Jorja Smith cites Rihanna as the sole fashion icon she is inspired by.