After a 17 year run with Republic Records, Jessie J announced in a video on Friday (Sept. 29) that she has split with her longtime label home and is planning on releasing her next project independently.
“My lawyer said that I need to make a statement about the decision that I have made. I don’t want it to feel like a huge, big thing,” said J, 35, in the selfie vid in which she is walking through a park. “After 17 years I have decided to leave Republic Records. I was about six months pregnant when I made this decision.”
She credited label founders Monte and Avery Lipman and former A&R rep Jason Flom for being “so gracious and kind in supporting my decision and letting me go. It’s been, honestly, the most amazing high and low ride of my life being signed to Republic,” added the singer whose last album of new material for the label was 2018’s R.O.S.E. “I just feel so grateful that I’ve got to experience being signed to the best record label in the world…. But I have to just be honest with who I am and what I want from my career now.”
Joking that she was now “unemployed,” the English singer born Jessica Ellen Cornish rose to prominence in 2011 with her debut single, “Do It Like a Dude” and the Dr. Luke-produced follow-up, “Price Tag,” which peaked at No. 23 on the Billboard Hot 100. Her third album, 2014’s Sweet Talker, hit No. 10 on the Billboard 200 album chart, fueled in part by her single “Bang Bang,” which also featured Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj; that track peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100, marking her U.S. singles chart peak.
“There’s no negative spin, nothing’s happened, it’s not dramatic. It’s just me literally saying, ‘This doesn’t feel right’ and it hasn’t for years,” she said in the video. “So, I need to stop just trusting my instincts and ask for them, so i asked and now I am unemployed.”
The “Domino” singer revealed that she was diagnosed with the vertigo-inducing disorder Ménière’s disease in 2021 and opened up about suffering a miscarriage later that year. She said in an interview in May 2022 that she had recorded her sixth album but scrapped the whole thing after thinking that it didn’t “feel right.” J gave birth to a baby boy in May of this year.
The birth of her child appears to have sparked a change in J’s outlook on her music career, with the singer saying she wants to move forward on her own. “I am now in the process of doing all the legalities and sorting out the music so I can put out new music and do it my way. On my time, on my terms and do it independently,” she said. “Now that I’ve had a baby there is just no stopping me. Something happens when you have a baby and just start giving zero f–ks… There’s nothing but good vibes on this.”
She promised that “new music is coming,” though at press time no release date or title was available for her next project. The video ended with J hoping that there some “12-year-old” out there who might spark a TikTok trend by dancing to one of her songs, joking that viral influencers are the “new record labels.” At press time a spokesperson for Republic Records had not returned Billboard‘s request for comment on J’s news.
Watch Jessie’s video below.
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