Jae Stephens Is Your New Favourite Pop Girl

The Texas-born vixen on manifestation, touring with FLO, and her flirty new single “That’s My Baby.”

By Cam Delisle

Published on May 21, 2025

The lights go up before they ever really come down. For an opening act, the stage is both an altar and an audition, bathed in half-interest and idle chatter. But Jae Stephens steps into that liminal glow like it’s her birthright—not merely warming up the crowd for R&B trio FLO’s headlining sugar-rush, but bending the moment toward her own center of gravity. To open is to gamble with silence, to seduce the distracted. And Stephens, with a voice like velvet dipped in honey, doesn’t ask for attention—she commands it.

This ability to manifest is a core part of who she is, a force she channels both in her personal life and through her music. “When they announced this tour, I’m not gonna lie to you… I was a bit annoying,” she says, an audible grin in her cadence. “I put my pride to the motherfucking side, I was DMing everybody… I was DMing the girls, which was huge for me. I’d never done that in my life.” It’s a moment of vulnerability wrapped in determination—a far cry from the image of effortless confidence often projected in the industry. But for Stephens, learning to trust herself, to put aside her hesitations, is the very act of manifestation. “I’m very new to that process… I’ve seen both sides, and I know now how satisfying it is when you believe in and work for something and it pays off. This really did feel like a confirmation of that.”

After years of basking in the glow of sidelines and songwriting credits, Stephens’ spot on FLO’s North American Access All Areas Tour marks both a breakthrough and a reckoning—a livewire test of intuition, stage presence, and self-trust. Her energy is infectious, and it makes for a live set that’s equal parts flex and flirt. There’s a signature braggadocio at play, but it’s laced with the kind of charm that disarms even the most indifferent crowd. There’s a shrug in her voice as she says, “I’m an opener, so obviously nobody is there for me, you know?” I let out a soft laugh before answering, “I mean… I’m there for you.” She laughs, but there’s a beat of seriousness before she continues. “I’ve definitely had to learn how to pace myself, how to find my own routine, and how to sway the audience, rather than letting them sway me.”

Her brand new single, “That’s My Baby,” the second single from her forthcoming EP, is one of her silkiest yet. Road-tested on crowds night after night before its official drop, the track became less of a premiere than a quiet claiming of space, its intimacy amplified in rooms full of strangers. “Performing it every night has just made me more excited about releasing it. I’ve always had dreams about people singing my music and I feel like that’s the one that people sing the most, besides ‘Body Favors,’” she confides, continuing that “every other song on the project is pretty poppy, so I wanted to spotlight [“That’s My Baby”] and give it the moment that I think it deserves.” It’s this strategy that makes an artist like Stephens so compelling: “I want to remind everyone that I’m not a one trick pony here,” she starts. “I’m capable of so many sonics and genres, and I want to express that.”

Stephens’ most recent EP, SELLOUT, marked a major breakthrough—both commercially and creatively. The six-track project signaled a departure from the glossy R&B sound that had defined her earlier work, embracing a more expansive pop sensibility. With influences from ’90s pop, a la Mariah, and early-2000s The Neptunes and Timbaland production, SELLOUT propelled Stephens into a realm of cult-like admiration on social media, largely due to the utterly entrancing single, “Body Favors.” “SELLOUT was my major label debut, and it was sort of me like… ‘I kind of want to try something a bit more pop,’” she reveals. “Now I’m like, bitch… I’m doing it. I am the queen of pop,” she teases. Though clearly joking, I can’t help but reply, “Girl, you will be.”

This newfound confidence isn’t just playful banter; it reflects a clear shift in Stephens’ artistic trajectory. “The new EP is definitely more confident, more self-assured, sexier, more intentional,” she promises, detailing that “There was a lot less writing to send to other people. It’s truly just my voice throughout, and I think that you’re going to be able to hear that sonically, melodically, and lyrically.” Despite the deliberate distance she keeps between her day-to-day self and the capital-P Popstar version of Jae Stephens, the lines still blur—especially when vulnerability becomes the hook. “I think a lot of it is playing a character, but then it somehow ends up being true. Even if I think I’m being playful and bullshitting, it always ends up coming from a real place.”

Stephens has only scratched the surface of what 2025 has in store—but the foundation is already shifting beneath her feet. “As soon as I get home I have sessions to finish the next project, and then I have to shoot a video, and hopefully we’re gonna do some more shows before the year wraps to celebrate,” she says. I eagerly take this moment to campaign for her return to Vancouver. “You better tell the crowd to be hype tomorrow,” she requests in response. Fast forward, 24 hours later, @jaephens posts a selfie on her Instagram story, with a caption reading: “Vancouver that was the best crowd so far im not even kidding lol.” My job here is done.