Jessie Reyez: the fascinating story of an artist destined to be a star

I’m good, very relaxed and happy.

My routine involves drinking a lot of water to stay hydrated; like a fish. Thank God, I’m with my family, and my mom prays a lot. She does her sahumerio (incense/purification) on the stage before I go on, and we pray with a team. I also have to eat a couple of hours before to avoid having a full stomach, have substance in my system and have energy. And that’s pretty much it. I pray, I eat and I drink water and I go and I stretch - I also try to medidate and do yoga everyday which all helps me.

I have learned that you can’t let the other side of the stage win, especially when you’re opening for another artist. I’ve experienced both situations, and I’ve been blessed to be on stages where I enter a venue and everyone is there for me and so it’s love, everyone is happy and they know all the songs—it’s beautiful.

But when you have to open, it’s challenging. It’s like climbing up a mountain uphill. When you walk out, you have to remember not to let the other side win because some people are just waiting for the main act they came to see. And it’s not their fault, that’s what they came for. However, my mission at that moment is to convert them, and make sure that everyone has a good time, whether they want to or not. And so that’s the objective. You can’t be insecure because that transmits to the audience and they can feel it. So you have to enter the stage with a confident mindset and have a good time regardless, even if I only convert 10 people, I have to make sure I have a good time because that energy is felt.

I feel proud and success, like I came and I did what I needed to do. I wasn’t born like this and when we are going through those adolescent years, you deal with a lot of insecurities. I remember when I was getting ready for my first show in Toronto. I was working with one of my first managers, Mauricio, who is also Colombian. He was a beat boy so he had more experience doing shows. And I used to dance too at that time (over 10 years ago) so we used to rehearse in an empty parking lot in the city, and I used a small water bottle as my microphone. That helped me learn to be more comfortable on stage.

When I can dominate the stage, I feel like that girl who was practicing ten years ago. I say I feel proud because I put in the work and the time and practice. I studied. I love Beyoncé, watched all her videos to be like ‘OK cool, I’m doing this and that.’ It’s nice, I feel like I’ve done my job when I walk and I leave the stage and I feel like that was a good day. I don’t want to say ‘converted’ people because converted sounds religious and it’s not religion, it’s more just presence. Like I came there and made a memory and they as human beings also made a memory with me - we are co-creating reality and I feel like that’s magic and I feel good like I was able to participate in that creation of magic.

There are micro and macro lessons, because there are small and big things. For example, when you walk into a meeting, and the person in charge, an executive, won’t look you in the eye when talking to you and they speak to others without engaging with you, that’s a sign of disrespect and negative energy. That’s one of the things that I noticed and that I needed to make an effort to shift.

And the more I was in meetings, the more I learned that you have to teach people how to treat you and you can’t even fault someone because if someone disrespects you and you allow it, you’re facilitating that environment. So next time, now that I’ve learned, if someone does that, I’ll be like, ‘Oh, hey, actually, if you’re asking that question, maybe you should address me because I’m going to be the one making the ultimate decision…’ You could do it respectfully. I learned, and it’s unfortunate what I mentioned earlier, it feels like an uphill battle. That’s what it feels like to be a woman in the business all the time. All the time.

You have to be aware of so many things and so many people and you can’t always be so direct, because if I am... it’s such a cliche because people say this all the time, but the reason women say it all the time is because it’s true. You have to be very delicate sometimes and meticulous with how you say something. If you say it and there’s too much tone or too much bass, all of a sudden you’re a bitch. And so you have to smile sometimes and it sucks.

But the great thing about it is that I feel like any sort of adversity that I’ve dealt with has taught me how to be more tactful, how to be more precise, how to be more aware of how I’m phrasing things. It’s helped me become a better business woman. It’s helped me become stronger. It’s helped me become more intelligent, more aware, more conscious of the energy in the room. And yes, it really sucks that it’s a reality, but there’s a benefit in understanding and learning when you’re coming into the industry, what you can use that’s supposed to be against you and use for you in turn.

I would tell her to keep going. Actually, I don’t know what I would tell her because I wouldn’t want to change how things happened. The hearts that I dealt with made me who I am, and I’m happy with who I am. I’m not perfect, and I continue to try to improve as a person, not just like an artist, but I would just tell her to…

I don’t think I’d tell her anything. I wouldn’t want to change it. I would just love her from afar and then watch it unfold again. That idiom in English, to stop and smell the roses, has been hard for me... to stop after the things that I have accomplished because when you are in midst of the momentum, you are just so focused and going so fast, I never look and say, ‘I’m so happy for that, I’m so proud of this.’

So one of the silver linings and good things I was able to get out of the dark experience of living through the pandemic was learning to slowdown and to not identify myself completely as an artist, remembering that I’m also a human being living a human experience and sometimes it’s beneficial to slow down and just be a little more conscious because more gratitude begets more blessings. So to have the energy and be thankful to God at the moment, not just when I look back. It’s beautiful. But I wouldn’t tell my younger self anything. I would just shut up.

Proud, happy, content, but I still have ways to go... if you look at my discography, the percentage of songs in Spanish is small, that’s why I say I have more to do. However, I feel happy and very grateful because the only reason I have that connection to my roots is thanks to my parents who made the effort to set rules such as no English spoken at home, and my dad playing Cumbia every day, ‘Alquimia,’ ‘Los Panchos,’ and ‘Grupo Niche.’ Having the opportunity to grow up in a Colombian household, even though I was living in Canada, I owe that to my parents.

Also, the beauty of Hispanic music, because when you’re listening to a song in Spanish, if you read the lyrics it seems like poetry. It’s very intellectual, elegant... There are many alliterations, many poetic elements. Often, when you compare them to English music, you can’t do that because you fall into something cheesy, but when you listen to it in Spanish, the romance is thick, it’s beautiful, and doesn’t become cheesy. I love that and by default, unconciously, it has made me more poetic when I make English music, it’s through the filter of a Latina born in Canada... So it comes out like a ‘sancocho’ (a stew), it’s my unique experience.

Yes, of course, I have thought about it... but the thing is, since I didn’t study in Spanish, it takes me longer to write in Spanish, and that’s the truth. When I do it in English, it comes out faster because I write in a very colloquial way. So, can you please wait for me a little bit? [laughs].

For me, my Mount Rushmore of musicians is Amy Winehouse. She has always been very influential to me. Lauren Hill for so many reasons, Bob Marley for many other reasons, Tupac, Frank Ocean. There are many. Everyone for individual reasons obviously. Every one of these artists have made legendary music.

I’ve said this before, I identify a lot with Amy because many of my songs come from a place of pain, and in those moments in my life, inspiration naturally flows out of me. When I’m happy and content, it hardly comes out and I don’t feel like vomiting emotional words like I do when I’m sad. I identified with her songs because I felt like a stranger was going through the same thing. When you go through your first heartbreak, you believe the world is ending. You have family or friends telling you, ‘Look, calm down because this happens to everyone, and you’ll get through it, and time heals everything’, but you don’t believe them because you think they’re saying those things because they love you and want to make you feel better. But when you hear someone who doesn’t know you say it and they sing what you feel inside, that was that moment, it’s incredible, and Amy was that for me.

Bob Marley, for the completely opposite reason, because I don’t write as many songs about happiness, but when I hear Bob, it’s like immediate medicine. There have been times when I felt stressed, I’m in my car, and I turn up the volume, and it’s like I instantly feel good, comfortable. I love it.

Yes, it was hard. They were scared, particularly because it’s not an easy industry and has its dangerous side, but like everything, it also requires sacrifices, and you have to work hard for what you want, right? They had their fears; however, they always supported me more than they were fearful.

I didn’t remember this... About two years ago, my mom told me, “Oh, daughter, it hurt me when I told you that maybe God doesn’t have this plan for you,” and I told her, “Mom, give me one more year,” and at the end of that year, “Figures” was released. It hurts me that it hurts her, because I don’t even remember that moment. I think the reason she remembers it so well is because she always supported me and it’s so crazy to know that she was holding on to that.

I also remember the day I sold my first song; it was nice! It was at a writers camp in Toronto, and I sold it for $250... It was very crazy. I went home with the check and bought groceries for the house. It was the first time my parents saw that I could make money with music... They were like you made money from your words and vibrations. It was a sign this could go somewhere.

Music, creativity, experimentation, presence, growth, freedom.

Omg! Why a book? It’s like trying to explain why a bird is in the air... I feel like the creator has to create; it simply is and happens. What many people don’t know is that before I could find my place in music, before I received any accolades for any songs, I was winning poetry festivals when I was 12 years old in school.

I’ve always been quite mischievous since I was a child, and every time the school called my house, it was with bad news. However, there was a teacher who was really cool and she was the only one who one time called during Christmas with good news. She talked to my parents and said, ‘Hey, I don’t know if you know, but Jessie is very talented in English, in poetry.’ She came to my show two years ago and brought her husband, and it was very nice. Poetry was my first gateway into the world of creativity.

It’s a poetry book with sprinkles of prose, with some short stories, and I had the opportunity to work with a French illustrator again, who was also responsible for the artwork of my second EP, ‘Being Human in Public.’ She’s incredible. So, a select number of my poems have her illustrations.

The title of the book is ‘Words of a Goat Princess’ [laughs] and its came out on October 17th. It was ready for a while but I was looking for a publisher partner that understood my goals with the book and didn’t want to mess with my guts and creativity. I know that there are companies that give you the marketing, the deals, etc, but they want to make changes in return. I found an amazing and lovely publisher that instead of interfering, she helped facilitate. I’m very grateful.

I’ve never liked having a plan because when I box myself, I feel suffocated. I like to feel free, so I’ll go and create something organic. That way the project can really reflect what it wants to and how I feel at that moment. I’ll continue to speak my truth because all the songs come from my experience... until the day that I die.

I also always work on my craft. I have a vocal coach, I study, and I practice new methods to get out of my comfort zone, challenge myself as an artist and become stronger. My music is always evolving but my constant is to always share my truth in my music.

[Laughs] I’m trying to stay in love with life, but yes, it’s been hard, I’ve had my share of heartbreak. So funny, you know, people ask me to do a TikTok on how to turn heartbreaks into songs [laughs] which is quite funny. But yeah, at this moment I’m focused on myself, trying to find balance because my last relationship didn’t go so well. I was too self-focused, and I forgot that I was with someone who wanted to focus on the partnership. In the past I’ve always loved being Latina, with so much passion and so much love, but sometimes I’ve fallen so deeply in love that I forget about myself.

So I’m trying to correct that. I think overcorrected it and focused too much on myself and I forgot that partnership is give and take and so if it’s in the stars it’s meant to be and it wasn’t. You learn lessons which is funny... I want to say that I learned that lesson and will apply it, but there’s no final destination, and you never know. If I think about the last two years, I think I made that mistake, this mistake, I know so much now, I’ve learned so much... But two years in the future, I will think of this moment in a similar way and tell myself, ‘I thought you had learned... You still need this and that.’

I hate clichés, but I’m learning to love the journey as opposed to being so focused on the destination. And that just comes with presence. My heart is not completely healed; I’m working on it. I don’t think I’m the best version of me, but I’m the best I can be right now and I’m working on it.

Mmm… Thinking, because there are more than one [Laughs]. I made a lot of mistakes. I’ve jumped on a couple Jordans, I’ve ripped up a couple T-shirts, burned some shit. That feels like it’s enough. That’s a good one… But that’s where we are going to draw the line. [laughs]