JADE - That’s Showbiz Baby!

She's not the most vocally gifted, nor the most at ease on stage. She probably has too many ideas and struggles to focus them into a coherent, recognizable image. But Jade Thirwall has a quality that's sorely lacking in today's British pop landscape: she has fun playing the popstar, even before trying to win over an audience, which is enough to intrigue even those who never quite connected with her former group, Little Mix. The fact is that while former bandmates Jesy, Perrie and Leigh-Anne suffer from the post-girlband curse, Jade has chosen to play every card available to her to orchestrate a debut that, as the title suggests, tells the story of the world she belongs to: “That’s Showbiz Baby!”.

The urge to go all out was already evident with “Angel Of My Dreams” over a year ago, a surprising prog-pop single accompanied by a ridiculous music video, which thanks to the element of surprise climbed to n.7 on the UK charts right in the middle of brat summer courtesy of Charli XCX. The dazzling disco offering of “Fantasy” was meant to repeat the feat, thanks to a gruesome music video directed by David LaChapelle, but the algorithm proved less generous this time, immediately triggering the brakes at Rca, known as the most heavy-handed label in the pop landscape. “That’s Showbiz Baby!” arrives over a year and a full seven previews later, a pout-pourri of styles that Jade had to fight hard to bring into the world.

Confused identities, then, but all things considered engaging and street-smart ones; we get “IT Girl”, the cheeky little hyperpop brat, “FUFN (Fuck You For Now)”, the eurodance diva in the style of Ava Max, “Midnight Cowboy”, the little vamp built on basslines and Middle Eastern-flavoured whispers, and two particularly well-crafted moments like “Plastic Box” and “Unconditional”, driving versions of a synthetic wave-pop halfway between Donna Summer and an indie-comedy actress.

Jade, in short, is here to have fun, dropping one mask after another as the camera rolls; here she is stuffing herself and belting it out on “Self Saboteur”, then slipping into the sultry dance-r&b guise of Tinashe with “Lip Service”, sticking her tongue out again on “Headache”, or diving into the theatrical ballad “Natural At Disaster”, which owes a heavy debt to the recent success of Raye.

Granted, there was no need to do karaoke to Diana Ross on “Before You Break My Heart”, nor to rehash tired trap-pop ideas on a “Glitch” that's only superficially experimental. It works better when “Silent Disco” closes the record with a grandiose synth-pop siren-song aura, a performance that radiates gratitude at having managed to finish an ambitious, difficult project.

It's a shame Rca proved so reluctant when faced with the ideas of a popstar who is, all things considered, capable and curious well beyond the average, inevitable missteps notwithstanding; one wonders why they bother taking on the commitment at all, if the promotional machine only gets switched on for the most generic faces and streaming-friendly tracks. But Jade seemed to have sensed this long ago, thanks to a decade of experience in the record industry (Little Mix's manager was a certain Simon Cowell); in the year leading up to her album's release, she showed up on every stage, at every event and podcast available, no matter how small, eager to connect with her chosen audience without filters or diva behaviour. Because while it's true that Jade isn't currently the new Lady Gaga, it's just as important to have a solid narrative behind you, an attentive audience and a handful of songs to entertain them with. If management won't handle it, she'll do it herself, because that too is part of the showbiz game: “That’s Showbiz Baby!”.

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16/09/2025