‘So many people say things about my appearance – it’s not normal’: Jorja Smith on burnout, body-shaming and finding freedom
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- Jorja Smith released her third album 'What Are the Odds' this week, a 12-track collection of UK garage, funky house, 2-step and Afrobeats produced by P2J (Richard Isong) and featuring Wizkid and Devlin — her first album built entirely for the dancefloor rather than her usual introspective R&B.
- Smith pushed back on the 'comeback' framing around the album, telling the interviewer she has 'been on tour since 2017' and that the 'return' narrative reflects her breaks from social media rather than any absence from music.
- Smith detailed sustained online body-shaming, including a period before her 2023 album 'Falling Or Flying' when 'Jorja Smith weight gain' trended on X for two days and she said she read comments asking 'What happened to her?' while simultaneously feeling healthier than ever.
- Smith revealed she moved back to her hometown of Walsall in 2023 after years in London, saying she 'needed a reset' and wanted to 'touch some grass, see some trees,' and now splits her time between the West Midlands and the capital.
- Smith no longer runs her own social media — her team posts to Instagram, she keeps the app only to message artists and friends, and she hasn't been on X in years, describing her relationship with fame by saying 'I never wanted to be famous.'
- Smith was discovered uploading covers to YouTube from her bedroom in Walsall, signed with a manager at 15, and broke through in 2016 with 'Blue Lights' before being featured on Drake's 'More Life' the following year, going on to earn Mercury and Grammy nominations plus two Brit Awards.
- Smith said even she sometimes still 'see[s] comments … and start[s] thinking: Maybe they're right?' — catching herself mid-thought in the interview to marvel that she finds herself doubting 'random people,' illustrating how fragile her equilibrium with online scrutiny remains.
Why it matters: Smith is one of the few British stars of her generation to publicly refuse the social-media grind — handing her accounts to her team and disappearing from X for years — while still maintaining a Mercury-nominated, Grammy-nominated, double-Brit-winning career. Her candid account of body-shaming that peaked while she felt at her healthiest, and her subsequent move out of the capital, reframes the 'comeback' narrative pushed by other outlets as simply the cost of operating on her own terms.
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