British singer-songwriter Jorja Smith is embracing a bold new chapter. With her high-energy single “The Way I Love You,” a striking shift in personal style, and a growing home studio, she’s crafting a soundtrack—and aesthetic—for the summer of 2025. But as always, she’s doing it on her own terms.
A soundtrack for the season
Jorja Smith has always known how to tune into a feeling and translate it into melody. Whether through smoky ballads, genre-bending collaborations, or soul-baring lyrics, the 27-year-old artist has steadily built a career on intuition and atmosphere. Now, with the release of her latest single, “The Way I Love You,” Smith leans into something bolder: a dance track with heavy bass and summer-ready rhythm that feels as spontaneous as it does timeless.
“[Creating the song] was kind of similar to how I wrote ‘Little Things,’” Smith says from her home in Walsall, England. “We were just chatting in the studio, imagining going out, being somewhere, thinking of somebody you maybe shouldn’t be talking to. That’s how it came about.” The result is a track that invites listeners to get up, move, and maybe surrender to impulse—something Smith admits she’s been missing in her own output.
Her fans, ever vocal on social media, had been craving something with more energy—and Smith, it turns out, was ready to oblige. She’s been working quietly on a string of more danceable material, reconnecting with a sonic groove she hadn’t explored since releasing her single “High.” But the process remains as personal as ever. “I always just make what I feel and wanna write about,” she says. “Seeing what people wanna hear doesn’t fully influence what I do in the studio, but I love how excited everyone is—and how much they’re loving the video, too.”
Style to match the sound
A new musical era often brings visual transformation—and for Smith, this shift has been just as expressive in her style as in her sound. Ahead of the release, she went blonde and started experimenting with more striking fashion choices: corseted tops, leather trenches, baggy denim, and sharp silhouettes that blend softness with edge. With the help of stylist Aga Dziedzic, she’s found a look that feels more aligned than ever with who she is.
“Aga has literally done everything you’ve seen me wear this year,” Smith shares. “I was loving everything AJ Tracey was wearing and asked who he worked with, and I said, ‘I’d love to try working with her too.’” The creative relationship grew from there, grounded in trust and shared evolution. “It’s mad because since I first moved to London, she’s seen me grow, put out music, and explore my style. It’s just been really fun and natural.”
Though she downplays it with typical modesty, the shift is striking: Smith is stepping into her spotlight with full intention, owning a confident aesthetic that mirrors her growing clarity as an artist. “Saying ‘It feels good’ is such a boring thing to say,” she laughs, “but I feel good in everything I’ve been wearing recently.”
A new creative rhythm
If Smith seems more fluid than ever in her decisions—both musically and visually—it’s because she’s learning to let go of expectations. Earlier this year, she was working on a larger project, compiling songs for a longer release. But as she sat with the material, something didn’t click. “They just didn’t connect with me the way they did when I first wrote them,” she explains. Rather than force it, she pivoted—and “The Way I Love You” emerged soon after.
“[That project] probably won’t see the light of day,” she says, with a shrug that signals both acceptance and empowerment. “Now I’m just working on singles and seeing what happens, which is kind of what I’ve always done.” With a supportive team around her, Smith is free to follow creative whims in real time. “It keeps it exciting and keeps people on their toes.”
The spontaneity isn’t just limited to songwriting. She’s also been quietly building a home studio and teaching herself to DJ—skills that could lead to her own live sets in the not-so-distant future. And while a tour is in the works and new music is imminent, Smith seems most content savoring the moment she’s in: making music she loves, wearing what feels right, and imagining what summer could sound like when you let yourself dance.
The summer ahead
When asked what the perfect summer looks like to her, Smith lights up. “Windows open, music on—garage house, funky house, just big sounds and bass line,” she says with a grin. “Food … friends … and maybe a few more releases from me.” Fans have already dubbed this stretch “Jorja Smith Summer,” though she demurs with a laugh: “I don’t want to say that myself, but you can say that for me.”
It’s an apt title for a season that feels distinctly hers: vibrant, unfiltered, and full of rhythm. While she may not be rushing to release another album just yet, Smith is crafting something arguably more powerful—a mood, a space, a presence. And whether she’s dropping singles, spinning vinyl in her own living room, or dancing in the video for “The Way I Love You,” she’s showing that creative freedom might just be her most exciting move yet.
“What we’re all feeling right now … more of this,” she says, letting the sentence linger. For Smith—and for the rest of us—this summer might be just the beginning.
