From dancefloor divas to piano virtuosos, Jamie Windust, the memoirist and model, shares the listening experiences that helped groove and soothe them through this tumultuous year
I was perched on my doorstep around midnight, 29 May, chain smoking and repeatedly refreshing my Spotify app when a glorious moment of lightness and joy in the depths of lockdown blues popped up on my phone. Chromatica. She was here, and the little monster inside me was rebirthed as I sat there in the moonlight, ready to tap play on the opening track. Listening to each song, I was reminded of how precious Lady Gaga’s music has been to me during pivotal moments in my life, and here she was marking 2020 – a year that I, like you, will never forget. It’s unsurprising, then, to look at my 2020 Spotify Wrapped data and see that four of my top five tracks this year are from Chromatica. Some may call it a guilty pleasure, but I think life is too short to qualify joy.
Music has always held my hand and transported me to my own version of reality, blocking out the mundane and amplifying the fabulous. This year has been no different. It’s ironic that pop music has had such a moment in 2020, when we’ve been unable to make the most of it on the dancefloor. But, like Sophie Ellis-Bextor, I and many others turned our kitchens and living rooms into makeshift discotheques. Those moments of letting loose with wild abandon, even just momentarily, helped me escape the horrendous world outside and return to myself. I’ve kept feelings of isolation at bay this year by dancing in my underwear and running around my flat to Little Mix, one of my most played artists of 2020, or reenacting the music video to React by Pussycat Dolls – one of my most played tracks this year. True Bliss.
