Jazzy has been streamed more than a billion times, worked with producers including Calvin Harris, and built a monthly listenership north of 10 million — all without releasing a full album. That changes this week with "Peace & Patience," her debut full-length record released October 23 via Chaos Records, days before the Irish DJ and singer becomes the first female DJ to headline Dublin's 13,000-capacity 3Arena on her own name.
"It's been quite a few years of creating some smaller projects," Jazzy, whose real name is Yasmine Byrne, told BBC Newsbeat. "That's given me enough experience now to feel like it was the right moment." The 30-year-old has spent more than five years releasing singles and collaborating with artists including Sonny Fodera, Rossi. and KILIMANJARO, building her profile track by track in a genre that has increasingly moved away from the album format altogether.
Swimming Against a Genre-Wide Current
Dance music has boomed in recent years — Spotify has told Newsbeat that listening to the genre among under-25s has grown more than 73% globally since 2020, and it dominated festival lineups this past summer, including a BBC Radio 1 Big Weekend stage devoted entirely to dance acts on its opening night. But artists in the genre have increasingly moved away from albums in favor of singles and EPs, chasing the kind of virality that keeps a track circulating on social platforms rather than anchoring a longer body of work.
Jazzy said she deliberately resisted that pull while making "Peace & Patience." "It feels a lot different now, with people kind of siding with virality rather than quality of music," she said. "When I was making the album, I wasn't thinking about going viral or anything like that. I just wanted to make something that was true to me and sounded like a Jazzy album. I like to let things happen quite organically and I try to just let the music speak to me."
Rooted in a Shrinking Club Scene
Jazzy's career began in Dublin's club scene, as part of a collective called Powerful Creative Minds, at a time she says the city's nightlife offered far more room for artists to develop offline. "When I first started going out, there was a lot more going on," she said. "There was a lot more nightclubs to go to and it's very different when we look at it now, which is sad." The UK's Night Time Industries Association estimates roughly 12 venues are closing across the country every month, with almost 30% of the night-time economy lost since the pandemic — a trend Jazzy says is mirrored in Ireland. "I hope to God that it doesn't disappear, the club scene altogether," she said. "We all need to try and put a hand in to keep it going."
Jazzy takes the new album on a UK tour next month, following dates in London and Bristol, but first comes Saturday's homecoming show at the 3Arena — a venue she is filling on her own name, after a career built on festival sets, a Coachella appearance, two BRIT Award nominations and tour support slots, rather than a single breakout hit.