When it first appeared in February 2011, Jessie J’s debut album Who You Are caused a sensation. Debuting at No. 2 in the U.K. and only narrowly missing the Top 10 of the U.S. Billboard 200, the record went on to move over 3 million copies and turned the young British singer into a star.
However, while her success seemingly arrived overnight, Jessie J’s road to realizing Who You Are was actually lengthy and arduous. The London-born singer and actress (birth name Jessica Cornish) made her debut in the West End musical Whistle Down The Wind aged just 10 and her first major breakthrough was as a songwriter when she co-penned Miley Cyrus’ huge 2009 hit “Party In The U.S.A.”
By the time “Party In The U.S.A.” made the U.S. Top 5, Jessie had been at work on Who You Are for four years. Progress was delayed when her initial label, Gut Records, went bankrupt but after securing a new deal with Lava/Island for Who You Are, Jessie completed the album. The result as a success, showcasing the young singer’s versatile vocal prowess and her all-star team’s songwriting smarts. A nigh-on seamless blend of hip-hop, R&B and eminently catchy tunes, Who Are You was a dynamic modern pop record and it chimed with the times, ultimately spawning seven hit singles in all.
The album’s most radio-friendly pop songs “Price Tag” and the confident, soaring “Domino” both became sizeable hits on both sides of the Atlantic, but it’s a testament to the overall quality of Who You Are that Jessie was also able to achieve significant chart returns with several of its most challenging songs. Her decision to pick the aggressive-sounding, pro-gender fluidity anthem “Do It Like A Dude” as the first single could easily have backfired, yet the song became a popular U.K. Top 5 hit and while “Who’s Laughing Now?” and the introspective title track bravely tackled difficult subjects such as bullying and physical self-esteem, they also became sizeable U.K. hits.
Indeed, by the time it delivered two further U.K. Top 10s (“Nobody’s Perfect” and the dancefloor-friendly David Guetta collab “Laserlight,”) fans and critics agreed that Jessie J had struck the perfect balance between intelligence and immediacy with Who You Are. Among the many positive critical notices, Virgin Media’s review declared that “Jessie J will be one of the biggest and coolest U.K. female artists for decades” and that came to pass when her subsequent releases, including 2013’s Alive and the following year’s Sweet Talker also enjoyed substantial chart success and cemented her reputation – at home and abroad.
“Making Who You Are was such a wild time,” Jessie J told Billboard in 2021, reflecting on her rapid rise to fame. “Looking back on it, I’m so grateful to have made that record. For people to have chosen my music to be a soundtrack in that moment…even now it blows my mind!”
