SINGLE REVIEW: Jade Helliwell – ‘Stay’

It’s been another really good year for Jade Helliwell. With a tour of Australia and another C2C Festival appearance under her belt, she’s also made big waves in the streaming world, with ‘Stormchaser’ and ‘Drive’ generating nearly 350,000 streams combined. To top it off, she took home 2 awards at the BCMA Awards a few weeks ago, winning UK Song Of The Year and Video Of The Year.

Continuing the momentum, Jade has now dropped a brand new single, ‘Stay’, channeling Cassadee Pope/Lauren Alaina vibes in a big pop-country power ballad. It’s great to see such consistent output from a British artist, and her releases this year have proved just how in-touch Jade is with the current Nashville mainstream sound. She knows what her fans are craving, and she knows what will work when it comes to streaming platforms and playlisting. Production-wise, it’s on-trend, slick, and represents British country in a great light.

Jade wrote this with her good friend and fellow Yorkshire lass Jess Thristan. We had the pleasure of having Jess at our ‘Nashville Sounds In The Round’ show in October; without a doubt one of the best songwriters out there in the UK right now, and she’s been releasing some cracking material this year, too. It’s a cheating song, but not your traditional cheating song. Written from the perspective of the person in the wrong, it cleverly keeps you on the side of the narrator, taking you through the struggles and the guilt of the situation. Jade’s delivery is bang on; the control over her signature vibrato is really well executed and there’s always so much passion and emotion there. That’s a given.

This one is the best of her recent releases for me. It’s already had a very warm reception, and it’s a fitting way to round off another year of memorable moments for Jade. ‘Stay’ is available on all digital platforms now – be sure to give it a spin!

Dan Wharton
@LifeInASong_Dan