‘I’m not afraid any more’: Norah Jones talks overnight fame, getting vulnerable, and singing with Dolly Parton
Norah Jones just wants to have fun. In fact, she uses the word “fun” 28 times over the course of our interview (yes, I counted). And really, who can blame her?
One feels that, if anyone in music has earned the right to kick back and enjoy what they do, it’s Jones. The 44-year-old singer/songwriter with the butter-smooth voice achieved industry-veteran status more than 20 years ago, having first exploded onto the scene in 2002 with her phenomenally successful debut album, Come Away with Me. It was certified diamond, selling over 27 million copies worldwide, and earned her five Grammy awards. It also propelled Jones – aged just 22 at the time – from a relatively unknown musician to a household name.
“It was a crazy few years; it was a strange, strange time,” she muses, in what feels like something of an understatement. “I wasn’t really prepared.”
Jones was at the vanguard of a Noughties cohort of easy-listening solo artists who were launched into the stratosphere by insanely popular debuts. It was a period dominated by Damien Rice’s , Katie Melua’s , Dido’s , James Blunt’s . These albums were era-defining – the musical score that underpinned an entire decade of dinner parties, and the sonic
