Since her 2010 debut single, singer Jessie J has enjoyed a phenomenal run of success. As she releases her second album, and quits TV’s The Voice, she tells Andy Welch about the lessons she’s learnt in a few short years

WHEN Jessie J wrote her debut album Who You Are she had her time at London’s premier talent academy, the BRIT School, to draw upon. Not to mention knockbacks from a record label that went bust before releasing her music, songwriting for the likes of Chris Brown and Miley Cyrus, and the various trials and tribulations of being a teenager.

Who You Are, following on from the huge success of her debut single Do It Like A Dude, was a big deal in the UK.

It didn’t go to No 1 – her former schoolmate Adele kept her off the top spot with her record-breaking second album 21. But it has since sold more than 2.5 million copies worldwide.

Jessie’s also headlined festivals and appeared on just about every TV show an artist can do, even becoming a regular judge on one.

But things are very different this time around as she releases her second album, Alive.

“I know what I’m doing that bit more,” says the 25-year-old, born Jessica Ellen Cornish, sporting a shock of short white hair she’s growing out after shaving her head in March for Comic Relief.

“I feel like I’m in control and prepared, rather than just turning up. I know how I want to represent myself, what to wear and all that. I know a catsuit on Lorraine just isn’t right.”

She hasn’t actually worn a catsuit on the Daybreak sofa, but she concedes that her outfits haven’t always been appropriate.

“It’s all just ripped trousers and knickers. I like to travel light,” she quips. Alive took five weeks to write, spread over a year to accommodate her other commitments. As with her first album, she called up a host of big names to help co-write and produce the songs, none bigger than Rodney Jerkins, who’s worked with the likes of Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Jennifer Lopez and Britney Spears.

Jessie says the more successful she became, the more people tried to tell her they were responsible for it, and the more they wanted an input on what she did next. “Before I was successful, someone might not be bothered. Now, they all want to get their little spoon in the glory pie.”

In her view she treads a fine line on Alive between being truthful and holding something back for herself.

It’s best demonstrated by the new song I Miss Her, one of the album’s big ballads. “It’s someone in the family, but I don’t want to name them because it’s a privacy thing,” says Jessie. “This someone is very close to me and very ill, and isn’t them any more. A lot of people have family members who suffer from dementia and things so I wanted to write a song about it, when someone isn’t themselves.”

One song she’s happy to explain is recent single It’s My Party, which is directed squarely at those on Twitter who spend their time sending her abusive messages.

“I wish it was more interesting,”

says the singer. “I was in the studio one day and looked on Twitter and there were all these messages coming in, like, ‘ hate you’, ‘I want to kill you’, or ‘You’re ugly’, and I just thought about how negative people are. You know – get a hobby, or a job or some friends, or something.”

And then there’s The Voice. Jessie, along with The Script’s Danny O’- Donoghue, announced that she won’t be returning for a third series of the BBC singing contest.

“I won’t miss it,” she says. “Not in a bad way, just that it’s time for someone else to have a go. I will still go back and see them, but I can’t sit there telling singers that I’m a successful artist if I’m available to film a TV series for half the year.

“It’s easily the biggest break I’ve had, and so many more people who wouldn’t know my music now know who I am. It worked perfectly.”

  • Jessie J’s visit to the MetroRadio Arena, Newcastle, on October 26, is sold out