Jessie Reyez is one of those pop stars that makes you wonder why she isn’t already filling the arenas of this world: the Grammy-nominated and four-time Juno Award-winning singer has worked with the likes of Eminem, Sam Smith and 070 Shake, is responsible for hits like Dua Lipa and Calvin Harris’ “One Kiss” and has accompanied Billie Eilish on her world tour over the past year. In September 2022 her second studio album YESSIE was released, on which she not only processed a toxic ex-relationship, but also found her own strength again. In the extensive video interview, we spoke to Jessie Reyez about healing powers and the art of honesty and self-love.
Watch the full video interview here:
When the coronavirus shut down the world in early 2020, Jessie Reyez was at the peak of her career. The first studio album was ready, all the music videos were shot. Then the pandemic came and every live show, every promotional event had to be cancelled. The decision to release her debut album BEFORE LOVE CAME TO KILL US was absolutely the right one, explains Reyez in an interview. “It was clear to me that I was a kind of guinea pig,” says the 31-year-old. “But I was lucky enough to be prepared and we took advantage of that.”
“Sometimes ‘No’ is a whole sentence”
Despite the commercial success of BEFORE LOVE TO KILL US—the album debuted at number 13 on the US Billboard chart and was nominated for multiple Juno Awards—Reyez’s mental state was at an all-time low at the time. She says: “At the beginning of the pandemic I was in a very dark place mentally. I started reading more and found a book called Now! The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle. This book changed a lot for me. It made me more aware of presence and setting boundaries. Sometimes ‘No’ is a whole sentence, and that’s a good thing. That I have learned. But it took me a lot of failures to understand how to prioritize.”
“I’m working to heal”
That’s exactly what YESSIE is about, she explains: healing, drawing boundaries, finding your way back to yourself. Today she is more balanced than ever. “I ensured growth, I worked towards growth,” says the Colombian-Canadian musician in an interview. “I’m not drinking as much as I used to, I’m exercising a lot more, I’m meditating, I’m doing yoga, I’m doing affirmations, I’m praying… I’m working to get well, to heal. I know healing isn’t linear and I don’t expect to be fully healed because that’s not the nature of life, but I’m working on it.”