When Jamie Fine visited South Africa last year to play Beefstock 2023, she began a not-so-secret love affair with our beautiful country, and she’s back this week for a nationwide tour that promises to be something special.
“It was already an important trip for me because it was the first time I had played outside of Canada and the US,” Fine tells me. “And when I got back I couldn’t explain how special this place was. I think people really have to experience it for themselves to truly understand.”
The Ottawa-born singer-songwriter is set to play four shows kicking off this Saturday in Joburg and then on to Kimberley, Nelspruit and finally Cape Town.
“We’re going to have fun on stage, that much I can promise you,” says Fine. “You can expect to see three people who love each other and love playing music together. Our relationship always translates to the energy of the crowd,” she adds.
Known for her dynamic live performance, Fine certainly knows how to build a genuine rapport with her fans. “We’re not just doing this for you, were doing it with you,” she says. “Sometimes halfway through the set I’ll start talking to people, joke around with them and hear their story. It’s a huge part of the experience for me.”
Growing up, Fine found solace in music, using it as a kind of escape from the cruel world around her. “In high school I only ever performed, I never recorded music,” she says. “My career started on the stage and so I find that I’m my most artistic self when I’m playing live.”
Lauded for her intense vulnerability, Fine is an incredibly courageous individual. Her tender pop tracks are always open and honest, speaking to some of the most challenging times in her life, and she translates that sincerity into her shows too.
“I think that’s why I do it,” says Fine. “That’s what I signed up for when I chose to be a journal with my music. I want to give people what music gave to me, even if it takes a little more out of me that it should.”
Her latest single “seconds away” is a striking reiteration of the candour we love Jamie for. Written in the space of 25 minutes during a fit of anger, the track is a pop-punk ballad made for letting go. “I can’t tell you how many bad phone calls I got that week,” Fine tells me. “It felt pretty unsurvivable. Personal stuff, career stuff, so I called my producer and I was like ‘We’re writing a song right now.'”
“I wanted to be angry,” she continues, “and as soon as I allowed myself to feel those emotions the music just came pouring out of me.”
Without ever taking herself too seriously, Jamie Fine enters this new phase of her blossoming career with subtle confidence, and South African fans are going to see that on stage. An artist who refuses to compromise who she is and what she stands for.
27 April – Johannesburg – Walter Sisulu National Botanical Gardens. Get tickets here.
30 April – Kimberley – KRC Rugby Veld. Get tickets here.
1 May – Nelspruit – Lowveld National Botanical Gardens. Get tickets here.
4 May – Cape Town – Grand Arena, Grandwest. Get tickets here.
