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Jul 01, 2024 By Mark Redfern

Jessie Ware has teamed up with Romy (aka Romy Madley Croft of The xx) for the new song, “Life You Up.” The two singers debuted the song at the Glastonbury festival in England this past weekend. Check out the song below, as well as their Glastonbury performance. Also watch Ware’s Glastonbury performance of “Free Yourself,” from her 2023 album, That! Feels Good!.

Ware and Romy first met at an early London gig by The xx and then the band asked Ware to perform at their Night & Day Festival in Berlin. “I felt like it was such a cool seal of approval,” says Ware in a press release. “I sang with them on stage and I think from then on Romy and I became friends, she was a fan of my music and I was such a fan of her.”

Ware and Romy eventually collaborated on songs, including “Share It All,” which appeared on the deluxe edition of Ware’s second album, 2014’s Tough Love. Stuart Price produced “Lift You Up.” Romy released her debut solo album, Mid Air, last year via Young.

Ware had this to say about “Lift You Up in a press release: “I was so excited to be in the room with my friend and to see how she works and to hear her beautiful voice. I’m so proud of the record. It’s a song that’s about both of us being too hard on ourselves, and not believing enough in ourselves. I think anyone can relate to that.

“There was a wonderful serendipity about the fact that she worked with Stuart Price on the last record too

“It’s going to be so exciting for people to hear this and people to hear it live at Glastonbury. It seems to be a theme of mine that I now debut songs at Glastonbury and I’m excited for everyone to hear us celebrating each other.”

Romy adds: “I’ve been a fan of Jessie’s music for a long time and it was amazing to finally work together after many years of friendship.

“Sometimes we all need a friend there to lift us up and help us see things differently. A memory comes to mind of Jessie and I backstage at a festival when I was just starting to play my solo music live and I was still figuring things out. She hyped me up and helped me believe in myself when I was feeling unsure. The conversation we had really stayed with me and was definitely in my mind when we were writing the lyrics.

“It was so wonderful working with Stuart Price again after we worked so closely on my album and with the brilliant Clarence Coffee jr for the first time. We wanted this song to be uplifting, celebrate togetherness and I can’t think of a better way to share it with everyone than at Glastonbury.”

Read our rave 9/10 review of That! Feels Good! here. It was also #5 on our Top 100 Albums of 2023.

That! Feels Good! was the follow-up to the acclaimed What’s Your Pleasure?, which was #5 on our Top 100 Albums of 2020 list. A deluxe edition, What’s Your Pleasure? The Platinum Pleasure, came out in 2021 and featured eight bonus tracks, including six new songs (stream it here).

Read our print magazine article on Jessie Ware and What’s Your Pleasure?

Read our extended Q&A interview Jessie Ware on What’s Your Pleasure?

Read our 2017 Self-Portrait interview with Jessie Ware.

Read our 2014 interview with Jessie Ware.

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