DXBeach: Q&A with Jess Glynne

Jess Glynne has been sitting at the top of the UK charts for three weeks with her single Hold My Hand. She tells us about her now-hectic life ahead of her performance in Dubai.

Jess Glynne performs on stage at Alexandra Palace on March 13, 2015 in London, Gus Stewart / Redferns via Getty Images

Jess Glynne officially possesses one of the most reliably hitmaking voices in pop – sitting pretty at the top of the UK album charts for three weeks with Hold My Hand.

It's the third time the husky, 25-year-old Londoner's vocal cords have scored the top spot in little more than a year – she is also the voice behind Clean Bandit's million-selling Rather Be and Route 94's deep-house anthem My Love.

Speaking from Los Angeles, fresh from playing at the scene-making Coachella festival, Glynne’s now-famously deep, throaty voice sounded bedazzled, bewildered – and tired.

Congratulations – it must have been a pretty crazy few weeks.

It’s been probably the most mental few weeks ever.

How are you keeping it all together?

I’m not, really – I’m pretty out of it. But I’m good. I’m excited, living life.

Hold My Hand is your third No 1, but this time the pleasure is all yours.

I feel like it’s my first No 1. Obviously, it was amazing having those No 1s with Clean Bandit and Route 94, but this is MY number one. It feels so different, like, “me” so much more – me as the artist I am. It comes from my journey, my story and my album. And it’s the most insane thing ever that it went to No 1, and sat there for three weeks.

It’s been an insane year. How much has your life changed in the past 12 months?

It changed completely – my friends and family I would see all the time, going down the pub, having a decent social life. Right now, my life is running at a million miles a minute – which isn’t a bad thing, it’s amazing – but the way things are moving [now] is so different to how they were a year ago. It’s really easy to get caught up in a whirlwind of stress – the most important thing is to not to let it take over.

Is it true you originally wanted to pass on Rather Be?

When I first got told about it I was a little funny about it, just because I’d never sung a song I hadn’t written before. And also the song didn’t sound like the final product, so I was also not sure it was worth doing. I wasn’t hugely excited by it.

But now it’s going the other way – you are writing for Rita Ora and Iggy Azalea.

The Rita thing – I don’t know if she’s using anything [I wrote], I just know I spoke to her and there was stuff she loved. I get on with her really well. The Iggy thing, she recorded something that I sang on. You never know – you do things, and things happen, and you may never hear it again.

The big news with you is the debut album. Tell us about it.

The album’s finished; it’s going to come out in the first week of July. I don’t think it’s what people might be expecting – it’s not a dance album, it’s a really soulful story of me, an introduction to me as an artist. People don’t really know what to expect or what I’m about, so once this is out there people are really going to understand the real me.

Have you been to Dubai before?

I came last year to do this private event, which was really random and I didn’t really get to see much of anything. I flew in and flew out in hours – so I’m not really sure if I like it or not.

What do you think of the DXBeach bill?

I mean Mark Ronson – Amy Winehouse was like a god to me, so him being part of all that ... yeah. I met him at the Brits and had a wicked chat with him – he’s such a nice guy – and yes, I’m hoping to definitely work with him at some point in my career.