INTERVIEW: Clementine Douglas on dance music collabs and launching her solo career: "Something really clicked in my brain...why am I just holding myself back?"
Interview: Shalane Connors
Published: 14 October 2026
The UK’s Clementine Douglas is one of the most distinctive voices in the dance music scene. Born in Birmingham and raised in Brighton, she started her career as the frontwoman of the band Kudu Blue and in 2020 began contributing her vocals to dance tracks from various producers. Over the years she has worked with some of the genre’s most high profile acts, such as The Blessed Madonna, Calvin Harris, Dom Dolla and Duke Lamont, becoming electronic dance’s go to vocalist. With over 1.2 billion streams to her name, she scored her biggest hit last year when her collaboration with Calvin Harris, ‘Blessings’ hit number 3 in the UK, for which she received 2 Brit Award nominations
Alongside her collaborations, Douglas has also released a number of solo singles over the years. While staying true to her dance and electronic roots, she explores a number of different dance genres in her own music. 2024’s ‘Riddles’ merges touches of soul, trance, R&B with dance while ‘Slippin’’ has a trip-hop house feel, interspersed with some jazzy horns.
In August this year she released ‘Trust’, her first new solo music in almost two years. Written and produced by Douglas, it is a high energy dance number with delicious extended instrumental breaks, bubbly synths and a powerful vocal performance from Douglas as she sings of restoring her faith in love: ‘I don't ask too much / Show me what it means to trust…Can you restore my faith in love?’
Singer, songwriter and producer, Douglas has also written songs for established artists including Jessie Ware, Jorja Smith and Wizkid, Melanie C, Majid Jordan and Paloma Faith. She was recently in Australia performing her own headline shows as well as performing with Dom Dolla at Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium. An intoxicating performer who combines powerful vocals you can enjoy alongside the powerhouse beats, Douglas is an artist that right now coming into her own. We recently met with her on her Australian tour to chat all about her music and career.
Women In Pop’s Shalane Connors (L) with Clementine Douglas
Hi Clementine! This is your first time here as a solo artist. How does that feel like having your name on the venue and running your own ship?
It's exciting and nerve-wracking, but mainly exciting. I'm looking forward to it.
I want to start with your collaborations. You've obviously had a few major dance anthems with other artists. How do you go about choosing those collaborations, and how do you hang on to your creative identity when you're working with so many different artists?
I always wanted to work with people who inspire me and people that I admire. That's always been really important from the start. My process just stays the same, no matter who I work with, which keeps the identity the same. I always just try and approach it and just do what I think is the best thing for the record, really.
Throughout the dance and electronic genres there is a track record of having female guest vocalists on tracks, and people would be forgiven for perhaps thinking that they're just purely vocalists that come in at the last minute and sing the song and go home. But that's absolutely not your role in all of this, you write and produce your own stuff as well as many of the songs you've featured on. How do you deal with people assuming that you're just a singer who just does that one little bit?
I haven't really thought too much about other people's perception of what I do, really. But moving into my solo stuff, I've become more aware that people aren't aware that I write and produce and do a lot of it. Moving into this new phase, and as a woman as well, it's nice to to share that you are doing all that. I'm recording everything at home, I'm producing all the vocals at home for everybody's records that I've ever done. The Calvin Harris one, the Dom Dolla one. Everything is recorded myself at home and I think it's important to share that. I haven't let it hold me back or feel like it's a negative thing. But it should be spoken about more.
I was thrilled to go through all the song credits of all your major hits and realise that they are your songs. That's a huge part of your artistry.
For sure, I don't think I've ever sang something that I haven't written. I don't like doing that.
You started out your career with the band Kudu Blue
Yeah, I had another band before as well. It was actually my own project, but I haven't. We didn't release anything, but it was more neo soul, R&B, at first, and then it went on to Kudu Blue. Some of the members of Kudu Blue were in that original band.
You have found a lot of success as a solo artist. What have been kind of the major pros and cons of moving into a solo career after doing the band thing?
Coming from a band and and collaborating a lot, the pros are being able to just follow through on my own vision and doing the sound that I want to hear, and the sound that I've been craving. The cons I'd say is the learning process for myself. I'm a real perfectionist, and I think the reason it took me so long to want to put stuff out on my own is because I overthink and think nothing's ever good enough, and nothing's ever finished. It’s been good to get myself to a point where you have to just stop overthinking and just be like, ‘this feels good, let's just get it out’. That’s a process that I'm navigating at the minute.
Do you have any tricks or advice for other people like that, because that's quite common with creative people.
I actually had a conversation with Fisher in Ibiza and he was like, "Where's your album? Like, what are you doing?’ And I was like, ‘I just don't know what to put out’ and he said ‘mate, just fucking put it out, everything you're doing is great, just stop overthinking it, you just really need to start putting it out there’. We had quite a long chat, and something really clicked in my brain. I was like, why am I just holding myself back?
In having said that, the songs that you've put out, is there a part of you that is still thinking ‘oh, I could have tweaked this, I could have tweaked that’.
No! It's weird. as soon as it comes out, it feels different because it's just out and it's done. Because I've only put four tracks out under my name, it's still very early in that process and I think the more that I do it, the easier that feeling's gonna get of just letting it go and being cool. I'm sitting on so much music. it's just stupid to keep not putting anything out.
You're super prolific!
I can't stop. I can't stop writing. I just love it!
Where does the impetus to write come from for you? Is it an emotional thing?
It's very cathartic, and I just enjoy the process of sitting down and singing. Really, it is my first love and the songwriting came after. There's just something about letting it come out and singing that just feels really cathartic. All I ever wanted to do since I was a kid was make enough money that I could just sing, and that was it. That was all I ever wanted. I never was trying to chase being a pop star or anything like that. I just wanted to sing, and I feel like that's still the feeling that gives me the most joy. Sitting and writing a song is something really powerful for me
Did you have access to that industry as a kid? Did you come from a musical family?
My family loved music, but no one was in the music industry. It took me till I was about 30 to actually be doing it full time, I was working lots of different jobs leading up to it. But it's nice that it's taken me that long, and that I've had to really graft and put a lot of years in and a lot of time in because I just appreciate so much what I've got right now. It's all just exciting.
There's a lot of really fast success these days with the rise of social media.
Yeah, although I wasn't really on it at all and probably that did hold me back. I'm leaning into it more now as I'm doing my solo stuff, but it was just never something that I enjoyed doing.
There's something a little bit cringy about trying to promote yourself in an image-based way when you're working in an audio field. It would be nice if everyone's music could just speak for itself! Going back to your childhood, what were the staples getting played around the home for you?
A lot of reggae, a lot of soul. I've got a really strong memory of my dad playing Massive Attack’s ‘Unfinished Sympathy’ when we were on holiday in a caravan park, and he blasted the volume right up. It was the first time I'd ever heard that song, and that's left a really big mark in my mind. That was the first time hearing that kind of dance music, the breaks and the strings, and just how emotive it all was. And as a kid growing up in Birmingham, I listened to a lot of garage, bass line, drum and bass.
Listening to Massive Attack’s ‘Unfinished Sympathy’, was that a turning point for you as a turning point to going into the sort of music you're doing now?
I was only 11 or 12, so probably not a turning point as such, but it's always been a reference that's been with me till this day as a benchmark of an exceptional dance record. It’s like the holy grail, you know what I mean? I don't think that'll ever change, it's one of the best songs of all time, in my opinion.
As someone who works in dance and electronic music, are you much of a clubber? Do you go out and dance?
You know what, I don't do it a lot because I go and I sing in clubs a lot. It's such a different thing when you go out and you're not going to sing. We went to Ibiza a few times this year and went to [club] DC10 last time just with the intention of going and dancing. We had the best night, wee was there until the music stopped, it was great.
What's your favourite part of touring globally, and what's your like least favourite part as well?
The least favourite part is flying, I don't really like flying. My favourite part is just singing. I really do love just to sing and being able to go and sing live and sing songs that I've written and see people connect with it is mad.
What does your current live setup look like?
I'm kind of still figuring it out. Sometimes I’ve had a couple of musicians on synths and keys and stuff, and then I've done some with a bigger setup with horns. It just depends on the show really. As I said, I'm only four tracks into my own stuff, so I'm still figuring out how I want to best portray it live, which is quite exciting as well that it's still in this discovery stage.
What have you got coming up on the horizons, release wise? What can we look forward to?
There's an EP coming at the end of this year, with some singles leading up to it.
Have you got a title for the EP?
I don't actually! I need to think about that!
‘Trust’ is out now via Warner Music. You can download and stream here.
Follow Clementine Douglas on Instagram and TikTok
