Jorja Smith – “Stay Another Day” (East 17 Cover)
A couple of months ago, the slinky and stylish UK R&B star Jorja Smith released her new album Falling Or Flying. Now, she’s naturally followed that LP up by covering a cheesy Christmas song from a British boy band as part of an Amazon Christmas-music playlist. That’s the sort of thing that slinky and stylish UK R&B singers do, right?
As anyone who’s seen Love Actually knows, British people make a big deal about the single that’s at #1 on Christmas in the UK. (We don’t do that over here, partly because it’s always “All I Want For Christmas Is You.”) In 1994, four years before Jorja Smith was born, the Christmas #1 was “Stay Another Day.” It was one of many hits for East 17, one of those boy bands who was huge in the UK and who couldn’t get arrested in the US. Chvrches covered the song in 2013.
Jorja Smith’s take on “Just Another Day” is part of Amazon’s new playlist of holiday songs, many of which will appear in forthcoming Christmas-themed Prime programming like the Eddie Murphy movie Candy Cane Lane. (This is how I learned that Eddie Murphy is making a Christmas movie called Candy Cane Lane for Amazon.) The playlist includes selections from people like Chloë, TWICE, and Tokio Hotel. If you’ve ever wanted to hear Meghan Trainor sing “Jingle Bells,” now’s your chance. I don’t actually have Amazon Music, so I can’t tell you if Jorja Smith’s version of “Just Another Day” is any good. If you have it, though, you can hear the whole holiday playlist here.