The Jessie and the Toy Boys singer is confident – even a little cocky – and she’s ready to prove you wrong.
For a 22-year-old with the high-pitched speaking voice of a teenager, Jessie Malakouti comes off as kind of a bad ass. And why not? The Jessie and the Toy Boys singer has hit the top 10 of the Billboard Dance Charts with “Push It” featuring red-hot southern rapper Yelawolf. And in June she begins the nationwide Femme Fatale tour opening for Britney Spears and Nicki Minaj, with a July 17 stop at Philips Arena.
Malakouti called Fenuxe from L.A. where she was resting up and rehearsing before hitting the East Coast for the biggest tour of her life. She addresses her relationship with her gay fans, the controversy between her and Britney and what it was like meeting the pop princess at a Nicki Minaj afterparty.
Fenuxe: So Jessie, I assume the audiences on the Britney tour will be the biggest ones you’ve faced in your career, correct?
Jessie Malakouti: Absolutely. I can’t wait, I’m so excited. It’s crazy!
Fenuxe: So it’s more excitement than nervousness?
Malakouti: Exactly. I’m super pumped. The biggest dream of mine is to perform live and inspire people and to meet my fans in person. I’m really excited for that part of it because I’ve already had a lot of people Tweeting me like, “I can’t wait to meet you!” I’m so pumped, I can’t even tell you. It’s a dream for sure.
Fenuxe: You’ve built up some serious buzz overall, but especially in the gay community. Did you expect to have the response you’ve gotten from your gay fans?
Malakouti: You know, it’s been a long road and I’ve been grinding and hustling and trying to make it in music for a very long time. And early on, the first community to support me was the gay community. A few years ago I was still unsigned and independent and releasing club records all over the U.K. And everyone was really blown away because both [gay publications] Attitude and Gay Times ran full page pieces on me and I had no press agent or anything like that. So everyone was like, “Wow, how did this happen?”
Fenuxe: You’ve talked about how you like to play with peoples’ stereotypes about you. How so?
Malakouti: In terms of my songwriting abilities, people might not fully understand, umm….how great of a songwriter I am [laughs]. I already know that about myself, I’m a very good songwriter. I have a lot to say and I think sometimes it’s the whole cliché of being blond and sort of “young Hollywood” and that vibe of not being intelligent and not having things to say – I like to shatter peoples’ expectations through music. If you really delved into the lyrical content of what I’m talking about in a lot of the records, it’s some pretty deep shit [laughs]. So there’s that. I’m not trying to sit here and be like, “Oh I’m the most amazing in the world.” But you know, I’m a confident young woman and I know that I write great songs and I know I have intelligent music.
Fenuxe: Can you talk about the controversy over Britney’s “If U Seek Amy” and your song “Trash Me” [“Trash Me” came out two years before “If U Seek Amy” and they sound remarkably similar]? What happened with that? And are you surprised to be going out on tour with Britney after that?
Malakouti: Well, I’m so beyond that I don’t want to spend too much time on it, first of all. But, at the end of the day – and I’ve always said this even when it was going down – it had absolutely nothing to do with Britney. It was an issue between myself and some songwriters that I had been working with. All I can say is that we’ve definitely resolved the issue and I’m happy about that and ready to move forward.
Fenuxe: So you have met Britney?
Malakouti: I just met her about two weeks ago. She is so lovely. I mean…I was definitely starstruck. You know, it was amazing. I’m a hugefan, huuuuge fan. It was crazy, it was just insane. Can you imagine being a major fan of somebody and you meet them and you’re like, “Wow, I’m going on tour with you? Is this my life right now?” It was really cool, she was very sweet. She’s just beautiful, she’s a superstar.
Fenuxe: Did she have any advice for you about the tour or was it more of a quick meetup?
Malakouti: Yeah, it was just shaking hands. You know, of course we said that we were excited about the tour. But we were at Nicki Minaj’s afterparty and it was very loud so it wasn’t like a full-on conversation. We were in a club.
Fenuxe: You’re just 22 but you’re already a six-year veteran of the music industry. What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned about the industry?
Malakouti: Probably the most important thing is to stay true to yourself as an artist and to always stand by your work and stand by what you believe in. Because often – and it’s happened to me several times – people will try to put you in a box or change you or tell you that you need to sound like this or dress like that and I’ve just always been about individuality. That’s probably why it’s taken me awhile to put a record out. But I can say that it’s a record that I 100% believe in. And that it’s 100% me. So just staying true to who you are as an artist and if it takes time to find yourself, take that time. Because when you do it, you want to do it right.
