After ending 2022 with Radio 1 Future Pop airplay for her tracks Right Girl, Wrong Guy and Sophie as well as completing a huge arena tour as special guest to Blue, next wave pop talent Cassa Jackson has shared her first single of 2023 in the shape of The Guy I Never Dated. The track made a flying start when its first teaser received 100,000 views within just 24 hours!
Cassa Jackson (Chloe Maylor)
Jackson’s songs often tell stories of how the path of true love doesn’t run as smoothly as you’d dream – but in the case of The Guy I Never Dated that’s surely for the best! She thinks back to everything she tried to make that relationship happen, from desperately re-recording voice notes to dancing until her feet hurt, but with the benefit of hindsight can see that she was wasting her time. Yet there’s more to the song than a mere sad story. The 23-year-old’s voice bristles with empowerment, while fiery pop-punk guitars (think Avril Lavigne or the harder hitting moments of Julia Michaels) underline the feeling that her lucky escape is well worth celebrating.
Of the new tune she says, “This is an upbeat, sassy song about wasting time on someone that you weren’t even in an actual relationship with, just a situationship. The lyrics are raw and honest, highlighting the lengths I would go to to try and make this guy like me, when he couldn’t even be bothered to text me back! What was I thinking? My mum told me if they’re not making loads of effort at the start to try to be in a relationship with you, they sure as hell won’t be once you’re actually together – so be careful what you wish for! Looking back I realise what a waste of time and effort that was and that he would have been a terrible boyfriend if we had ever made it that far.”
Jackson wrote The Guy I Never Dated with its producer Kevin Malpass. Check out the lyric video below:
This year has already seen Jackson perform alongside Blue and Aston Merrygold at Mello Fest, and she recently finished a tour with Lucy Spraggan where she ended each show with The Guy I Never Dated. Her summer festival schedule will see her perform at Oceanfest (17th June, with Tom Grennan, Katy B and Thomas Headon), Latitude (23rd July) and Carfest (25th August). She also recently confirmed a London headline show at The Grace on 31st August.
While Cassa Jackson’s career is still in the ascendancy, she has already achieved so much. In addition to Blue, she has also toured arenas with JLS and supported The Jacksons, as well as playing festivals such as the Isle of Wight and the Cambridge Club Festival, while her debut London headline show at Omeara was sold-out. She has exceeded 12 millioncareer streams to date, led by big moments including Suits U and Parallel Universe.
Cassa Jackson (Chloe Maylor)
While her highly relatable, based-on-true-stories songwriting can appeal to fans of Miley Cyrus, Halsey and Dua Lipa, there’s plenty about Cassa Jackson that’s unique. The story behind the very start of her career sounds like the plot of a barely believable film: an aspiring singer enters a songwriting competition where she triumphs with her debut performance at the grand final, leading to her performing her second ever show at Wembley Arena. And which other artists are trilingual with a first class honours degree in rench and Spanish, the latter of which she is fluent in Spanish after living in Madrid? In another unlikely event, she even had a cameo in the cult sci-fi series Pandora.
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