The first thing that hits you in Lexie’s new single “Plane Jane” is the guitar riff—unassuming at first, then suddenly alive, like it knows it’s about to carry you somewhere. A couple of bars later, her voice drops in—soul-soaked but light on its feet—and you realize this isn’t just another breezy pop track. It’s the sound of someone who’s lived out of a suitcase long enough to make airports and hotel lobbies feel like living rooms.
Lexie calls it her “Sassy Soft Girl Era”, but that undersells the craft here. The song feels like a postcard from everywhere and nowhere at once: a little Motown sunshine, a touch of country honesty, plenty of pop shimmer. You can hear why she leaned on The Staple Singers’ “I’ll Take You There” for inspiration—it’s less about perfecting the notes and more about transporting you to a headspace. And when the horns kick in, courtesy of Jovan Quallo (yes, Joss Stone’s sax player), it seals the deal. You’re in her world now.
Her world is complicated, though. UK-born, Dubai-based, Lexie’s been moving between scenes and genres in a way that could’ve made her sound scattered. Instead, she’s turned it into a signature. One night she’s fronting an electronic live set with TSHA, the next she’s opening for Take That in Abu Dhabi in front of 30,000 fans. That kind of whiplash would flatten most voices. Somehow, she only sounds sharper.
I’ll admit, I wasn’t expecting her music to land this personally. Her 2024 debut album, Diaries of a Disastrous Dating Life, had me laughing one minute and double-checking my own text history the next. There’s a confessional streak in her writing that feels closer to early Taylor Swift than anything else in the pop-soul lane. But where Swift polished her heartbreaks into starlight, Lexie leans into the mess a little more—the bad decisions, the airport cocktails, the blurry mornings after.
And then there’s her live presence. I caught some fan-shot footage from Primavera Sound, and what stood out wasn’t the size of the stage or the production around her. It was the way she locked eyes with the crowd, like each lyric was a private whisper. That trick—making 30,000 people feel like they’re in a living room show—is rare currency in this industry. No surprise she’s already stamped her name on Spotify’s New Music Friday playlists and stacked festival lineups from Japan to Spain.
Here’s the thing: Lexie doesn’t sound like she’s chasing a lane. She sounds like she’s building one. The raspy edges in her voice, the wink in her phrasing, the unapologetic genre-hopping—it all points to an artist who knows her contradictions are her selling point. A blue-eyed soul singer with country instincts, a Dubai headliner with a London backstory, a “soft girl” who’s clearly got steel in her spine.
Plane Jane feels like the opening chapter of whatever comes next. And if the past year is any indicator—support slots, festival main stages, a debut album that actually felt like a diary worth reading—Lexie’s momentum is only pointing upward. She may be living out of a suitcase, but this is starting to look a lot like home.
Q: “Plane Jane” blends blue-eyed soul, pop, and country storytelling—how did you find the sweet spot between these genres?
Lexie: It really was the most organic process. I grew up listening to Motown and soul—Sam Cooke, MJ, Diana Ross. My parents loved it. And country music is just my favourite, I love the way they take the most simple stories and retell them so cleverly. I love to tell stories (cause I have a lot of them, mostly dating disasters).
I love catchy, memorable songwriting, and I grew up listening to soul, so I don’t feel at all surprised at the combination. I hope you love it!
Q: You’ve called this your Sassy Soft Girl Era—what does that mean to you personally and artistically?
Lexie: Honestly I just needed a minute to be lighthearted and not take life too seriously. My music is usually a tell-tale sign of where I’m at (usually heartbroken), but I’m currently enjoying life, and allocating more time to my personal life and travel. So it felt like the perfect time to put this song out. I usually get so inspired during travel too, so no doubt more feel-good bops on the way.
Q: The Staple Singers’ I’ll Take You There inspired the track—what elements from that song resonated with you?
Lexie: One of my girls in Nashville always plays it when I visit her. The two of us can’t help ourselves—we get up and start dancing around the kitchen, grooving, laughing. It just gives me a fun feeling that I wanted to give to my listeners.
Q: You’ve said home is a feeling, not a place—how did that perspective shape “Plane Jane”?
Lexie: I get uneasy when I’m still too long… I realised that I am calmer amongst the chaos that is my life! Taking the twists and turns in my stride allows me to enjoy each moment. I jump between Dubai (current home), UK (home home), US (home away from home), then a bunch of other countries where I get booked to sing. I’ve seen so much and it’s part of me. Moving around as much as I do ain’t for everyone—and that’s literally what I said in the song.
Q: With Jovan Quallo’s retro-soul horns and breezy rhythms, the arrangement feels cinematic—what was your vision for the sound?
Lexie: I didn’t have a vision for this song to start out, it was just an expression. I went to the studio with a tired husky voice and told my producers, let’s write something soulful and low. With like one repeating line, because my voice was just mashed. Lloyd, my producer, laid down a feel-good groove and I literally scattered the lyrics as they came into my head. It was a one-take vibe.
Jovan jumped on after I started to tease the song on my socials. He was like “yo Lex, is that you?” I was like “yeah, you wanna play on it?” Omg I’m so happy he did—my boy raised the bar!
Q: You’ve played everywhere from Primavera Sound to opening for Take That—what performance stands out most in your memory, and why?
Lexie: The Take That support felt unreal. I did a 40-minute set of originals with four dancers in the biggest outdoor arena in the UAE. I came off buzzing—we really locked in. That’s a rare feeling for me, because I usually come off and rip myself apart with criticism.
I also loved supporting Tim Gallagher—it was a small venue of 300 people. Super raw and acoustic, but I really felt I got the chance to connect with the audience in that setting.
Q: Your debut album Diaries of a Disastrous Dating Life was raw and confessional—how does “Plane Jane” signal a new chapter?
Lexie: I mean, I finally wrote a song that’s not about a boy, yayyyy! I’m not saying I’ll never write an angry song about a man again, ‘cause I probably will, but right now I’m celebrating the positive good things going on in my life. Cheers to that!
Q: Constant travel fueled the song’s creation—what’s one travel memory that directly influenced the lyrics?
Lexie: I had a run of gigs in Europe last summer. One night I was in Greece, the next in Porto, then back at my family home in the UK. I was literally running on fumes and European wine, yum. Enjoying the different cultures and food, being around great talent, and I just had a blast. I remember thinking, “I live for this s**t.” Haha. It’s rare I go on holiday—it’s usually a working holiday!
Q: You’re praised for combining Joss Stone’s soulfulness with Taylor Swift’s lyrical wit—how do you balance emotional depth with accessibility?
Lexie: I just be myself! I’m deep, I overshare, I pour my stories and feelings into song in my words. Some days the magic doesn’t happen, the chemistry between the production, the lyrics, the melody just doesn’t click. But this day it did click. Sometimes there’s not an explanation for why something works, it just has a magic.
Trust me, I have plenty of demos that will never see the light of day.
Q: If “Plane Jane” were the soundtrack to a single movie scene, what would that scene look like?
Lexie: It’s my dream to have my songs in movies—manifesting that…
A woman in her early 30s gets dropped off at DXB airport in a taxi. She scrambles quickly through the airport to reach her gate before it closes. Hair and makeup a mess, because she just broke up with her fiancé, and decided to book a last-minute flight to Texas (somewhere new).
She’s normally not a risk taker. But she couldn’t bear to stay alone over Christmas in her house where her ex’s face filled every corner of the room.
Upon boarding, one of the Emirates airline staff sees her and decides to upgrade her. She’s ecstatic—she’s never flown business before, and she normally has no luck. She sits down into her booth and reaches for a champagne, at the same time a young man reaches for the same glass. Their hands touch and the glass spills on him. She goes bright red, and he leans forward to smile. He’s wearing a cowboy hat, well-built, handsome, with blue eyes. He says, “Are you ok, Ma’am?”
Hehehe… sorry, I wrote half the movie there!
The Hollywood Six 