WTFTW aka Where The F&ck The Women is in from Jess Folley!

Release date: 20/02/2026 Label: D.A.P.

Jess spent last year in the musical Burlesque, (Ms Aguilera role) and in February starts as the lead in Les Miserables in the West End. 

Nothing phases Jess Folley.

Starting with the original version now, and with a KJee remix landing with you in for the weekend.

Primetime TV barely into her teens? Taken in her stride, twice. Writing for the stage alongside Sia, Christina Aguilera and Diane Warren? Done. Conquering the West End (Burlesque + Les Miserable) without a single acting lesson? Somehow, Jess made it look easy.

In between her remarkable achievements, the 22 year old from Essex has been plotting her route into pop. Or rather, she’s been holed up in the studio she built in her mum’s garage making music that pulls back the curtain on the last few years of her life. Now, she’s ready to release it.

22 & Trying is Jess’s first EP proper. Seven songs capture the self-taught singer, songwriter and producer as she tries to make sense of herself, parties in London, reaches out to a friend and, on the slinky, swear word-strewn single WTFTW, rails against the lack of female role models around her.

Her spectacular voice is what strikes you first, whether reeling you in with its intimacy or blowing you away with its power. Jess can do large-lunged diva like the artists she grew up with (Whitney, Christina, Beyonce, Adele). She can get gritty, playful, soulful, hypnotic and switch up styles as easily as she can belt out a ballad. 

“To me, versatility is key,” says Jess. “My voice and the way I write lyrics are my signature. Musically, I don’t stick to one sound. Beyonce doesn’t, yet you always know it’s her. That’s what I aspire to.”

That versatility and raw power helped Jess win TV talent contest The Voice Kids UK at the age of 14 and saw Simon Cowell choose her to front a girl group on The X Factor: The Band two years later. Looking back, she likens both to training. 

None of it, however, prepared Jess for the past few years. Through a mix of talent, tenacity and a confidence she credits to a childhood spent singing covers in pubs and at open-mic nights around Essex, last year she took London’s West End by storm as lead in the hit musical Burlesque.

She had already penned songs for the soundtrack when, despite never having acted professionally nor been to stage school, she was offered the part of Ali Rose. Audiences, critics and Christina Aguilera, who famously played Ali opposite Cher in the film from which it was adapted, were wowed.

Since, Jess had starred alongside Lulu in a West End production of To Sir, With Love and won her next major lead role,as Eponine in Les Miserable. Yet making her own music remains her focus.

“These days, there’s such a fine line between theatre and pop,” says Jess. – “Ariana Grande in Wicked, Renee Rapp releasing on the rise after starring on Broadway, Hamilton in the charts.. I’ve always hoped to do both, but music was the priority. There’s no better training for a tour than 8 shows a week on the west end! 

In some ways it did. The £30,000 Jess won on The Voice Kids was spent on the studio (plus a few family trips to Disneyland), where Jess still primarily produces her music. Her first EP, 18 & Anxious, was entirely recorded there, although never intended to be released. Its songs were written as a response to therapy sessions Jess was asked to attend after suffering frequent panic attacks. 

“The panic attacks had nothing to do with performing,” says Jess. “That’s the easy bit. I was recently diagnosed with autism and it turns out that’s a lot to do with it.. The attacks are more to do with sensory overload and processing emotions. I still get them, but now I know how to deal with them.” 

“Coming into the theatre in particular as a young, female composer, I couldn’t believe how few female creatives I found,” says Jess. “ You hear so much about how the world has changed for women, then suddenly you discover that it hasn’t. That really pissed me off, which I hope you can hear. I’m a ballsy person when I need to be. I get it from my mum, who runs a female-led legal firm.”

Perhaps the only issue is whether Jess will have time to focus on her music.

“Are you kidding?” she asks. “I’ve spent my entire life in training for this. In Burlesque, I did eight, three hour shows a week and couldn’t wait to get back to the garage. I feel like it’s been a really long time, but I’m ready.”

Craig & Scott