We took the British songstress to a New York pub before her debut album, Who You Are, dropped Stateside on Tuesday.
By Rya Backer, with reporting by Steven Roberts
Jessie J
Photo: MTV News
NEW YORK — MTV News' First Date series has taken us to some of the city's finest establishments (Joe's Shanghai in Chinatown, the Viacom cafeteria) as we've gotten up close and personal with up-and-coming artists we knew were well on their way to stardom. Our latest edition, featuring Jessie J, was extra special because we caught the British songstress the day before her musical-guest debut on "SNL."
Ms. J guided her date, MTV News' Steven Roberts, through a traditional English breakfast as she talked about, well, everything but her music. It should be noted that Jessie has already penned songs for pop royalty, including a co-writing credit on Miley Cyrus' "Party in the USA," and her debut album, Who You Are, has already gone platinum in the U.K., where she's considered something like pop royalty herself. Who You Are was released in the States on Tuesday (April 12) and features such tracks as the insanely vulgar, catchy "Do It Like a Dude" and the super sweet, Dr. Luke-produced "Price Tag."
That said, Jessie and Steven spent a lovely March afternoon at the Clerkenwell on the Lower East Side, where the pop singer took on essential getting-to-know-you topics like least-favorite words (hers is "slice"), hobbies (hers include cleaning, drawing and cooking, and she even offered to make Steven her famous lamb lasagna) and local slang. Most important, they tackled if and how the Brits were taught about the American Revolution (answer: "you don't get taught it in school").
School was never one of her strong suits, though, Jessie admitted. "I was so bad at history, math, science, geography ... anything academic." She added, "I really tried; it just never clicked with me. Every single report was, 'Jessica could do with not distracting people with her voice.' "
Topics also veered toward the serious, namely what she noted in her five-year-plan: "I think one of my ultimate dreams is to be able to make enough money to give money away and still be comfortable." Specifically, she'd like to help give back with "youth clubs around U.K. ... now they have youth vans, where basically the kids go on and the doors open and they just have like, PlayStations, and that to me, that's not communicating."
Did you enjoy our latest edition of First Date? Let us know who we should take out next in the comments below!
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