Inside JACOTÉNE’s Invite-Only London Show

On a dimly lit stage tucked inside a tiny venue in the heart of London, Melbourne-born JACOTÉNE emerged quietly. There was no spectacle, no smoke or flashing lights. Just a microphone, a band, and a room full of people who were about to be completely caught off guard.

From the first note, it was clear: JACOTÉNE’s voice stops people in their tracks. Deep, textured, and far beyond what you’d expect from a 19-year-old, it filled the space like velvet smoke. There was weight behind it, and a kind of lived-in intensity like she’d packed a hundred lifetimes into a single ballad.

Performing songs like Stronger, Stop Calling, and debuting a new unreleased track titled Why’d You Do That, she moved through each track switching seamlessly from aching vulnerability to pure vocal ferocity.

The crowd at The Forge might have been small, but the energy was massive. Packed shoulder to shoulder, people were visibly stunned, smiling and mouthing “wow” to each other between verses. The set felt intimate, almost private, like we were eavesdropping on something deeply personal, but being let in anyway.

And JACOTÉNE treated the room like a headline stage: making eye contact, holding space, and letting every lyric land. Between songs, she was disarmingly down-to-earth, cracking jokes, thanking the audience, and grinning with a sweetness that reminds you just how young she is, even if her voice suggests otherwise.

By the end, it was obvious: JACOTÉNE is already delivering the kind of performance people talk about long after the lights go up. No theatrics, no forced presence, but a voice, a story, and the kind of instinct you can’t really teach. As she closed the set, she walked off the stage the same way she came in: calm, composed, and completely in her element. Like she’d never needed the smoke and lights in the first place.

Words by Elektra Kaldeli

Photography by Sandra Titus