John Newman sprung to national attention when he provided the vocals for Rudimental’s Feel The Love, which hit the airwaves in 2012 just as he was recovering from a hugely serious operation for a brain tumor. Fully recovered, the Yorkshire born soul boy launched his own debut single Love Me Again in 2013, a number one hit which needs no introduction. Since then he’s sung on Rudimental’s Not Giving In, and Calvin Harris’ Blame, as well as writing for the likes of Jessie J and Olly Murs.
Attitude caught up with the 25-year-old following one of the biggest weekends of his career this June, when he supported Taylor Swift in Hyde Park on a Saturday night, and performed at the Closing Ceremony of the European Games in Baku, Azerbaijan on the Sunday. We spoke to him from Kazakhstan, which might sound like an odd place for British music to be reaching, but it was of no surprise to the attentive Newman that he had fans in the region. “I do study how my career goes, I’m very on it in terms of where sales happen, things like that. I’m very interested in my own market, so I was aware. I mean we’ve had something like six number ones here in terms of monthly figures!”