Jae Stephens – Audacity
THE WAIT IS OVER: Buzzy pop singer/songwriter, Jae Stephens unveils her highly anticipated debut studio album AUDACITY, out now via Def Jam Recordings / RAEDIO.
Equal parts pop fantasy and personal manifesto, the 11-track project is a coming-of-power story that examines the contradictions of modern femininity through Jae’s unique lens where softness and vulnerability coexists with strength, command, and independence.
At the heart of AUDACITY is Jae’s refusal to exist within a single definition of womanhood giving room for her various contradictions to balance each other and lean into every version of herself without apology. The album unfolds within her immersive fanatical world Auda City – created by Jae and Creative Director Cass Meyers (SZA, Megan Thee Stallion) – where she allows each song to function as its own chapter while contributing to the larger mythology of Auda City. She brings that world to life sonically with long-time collaborator and producer Dallas Caton, writing support from MNEK (Beyoncé, Dua Lipa, Zara Larsson), backing vocals from Pop princess, Pink Pantheress on “Crush” as well as through music videos and accompanying visualizers. Fans first received AUDACITY with its opening salvo, “Attaboy!”, establishing a flirtatious, bass-heavy track that makes intimate pursuit feel like a game Jae’s already won. “Sugar Trap” sharpened that perspective transforming flirtation into a meditation on standards, desire, and knowing one’s own value. Most recently, “I Miss The City” and “Gymnastics” – which made its debut on Apple Music’s Zane Lowe – revealed the album’s more complicated interior where Jae yearns for spontaneity and freedom, while the latter turns her own resistance to commitment into a sly admission of culpability. Together, both tracks illuminate the duality that sits at the center of AUDACITY noting Jae as neither entirely romantic nor entirely detached. She is all of it at once.
“AUDACITY is me daring to take up as much space as I want in a world that has tried to box me in both personally and professionally,” says Jae. “The songs on this album put my ambitious, aggressive, and even at times avoidant tendencies on display; rather than run from it, I’ll always have the audacity to tell it exactly how I see it, even if it can sometimes paint me as the villain in my own story.”
With AUDACITY, Jae Stephens steps fully into the world she has been building where femininity is not a fixed identity but an expansive contradiction of deep personal experience. She does not ask permission to be complicated, ambitious, sensual, difficult, soft, or loud. She simply makes room for every version of herself to exist and gives each one the soundtrack it rightfully deserves
This October, Jae will join Grammy-nominated pop / R&B singer, Khalid on the European leg of his “It’s Always Summer Somewhere” – making stops in Paris, London, Manchester, Amsterdam and more. Jae is no stranger to touring from officially landing as an opener for FLO on the US leg of their “AAA Tour” in 2025, to her own SELLOUT tour in October 2025 – selling out its initial three show dates in LA, NYC, and London in 24 hours. She extended the tour in 2026 making stops in a handful of additional North American cities.
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