Biography
Sadie Jemmett is a critically acclaimed Singer/Songwriter, performer, and composer for Theatre. She is known for her outspoken and politically inspired songs. Sadie is a UK artist living in France. She performs in both English and French.
Her music career began many years ago in Paris, when her newly recorded single was picked up by renowned theatre and opera director Irina Brook and used as the theme tune for her hit show, Resonances, starring French film star Irene Jacobs.
The play was a critical success and went on to win a prestigious French Moliere Award.
From Paris, with her newborn baby in her arms, Sadie moved to London to continue her career. There she had a lucky break when she secured a support slot for legendary folk Singer, Judy Collins at the prestigious Jazz Cafe in Camden. Judy was impressed and signed Sadie to her New York label, Wildflower Records, who released her debut album, The Blacksmith’s Girl, a mainly acoustic album of Americana/ folk songs, produced and recorded in LA by the late, great David Bianco (Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Red Hot Chilli Peppers)
The album received great reviews, notably from the respected music critic Nigel Williamson, who is a fan, and enjoyed both national and regional radio play. Sadie then toured the UK extensively as support for Judy Collins, Aled Jones, Anais Mitchel, and KT Tunstall.
At the same time, Sadie contributed to a worldwide release, Music Is Love; (a singer-songwriter’s tribute to the music of Crosby Stills, Nash and Young) alongside artists such as Judy Collins and Irish singer Liam O Maonlai.
Her cover of Graham Nash’s Teach Your Children, which appears on the album, received excellent press and continues to receive radio play in the UK, Europe, and America.
Her second album, London Love Songs, is a collection of vignettes about Sadie’s life as a musician and single Mother living in London. It was recorded in part at the legendary Abbey Road Studios. It was released, again to critical acclaim, in 2015, and she toured for most of that year throughout the UK and Europe.
After a brief break, caring for her Mother, who was suffering from dementia, Sadie returned with her third studio album, Phoenix, which was released in 2019 and recorded over two weeks at Baker Studios on Vancouver Island, BC, by award-winning producer, Joby Baker (Cowboy Junkies and Waylin’ Jennys’).
Joby and Sadie were childhood friends, having played together in their early teens, so the process of recording and working together again was especially poignant.
Sadie was also honoured to be awarded a grant by the Canadian funding body, Creative BC, to aid with the creation of the album.
The album is deeply personal and reflects the profound grief that Sadie was dealing with, having lost both her Mother and, tragically, her close friend just months before she went to Canada to record the album.
It also includes the single ‘Don’t Silence Me’ written for her friend and actress, Mhairi Morrison, who was sexually assaulted at the beginning of her career in Paris by a well-known film director. The song took on a life of its own when it was picked up by the Me Too movement, who made a video featuring her friend Mhairi, as well as other appearances from survivors of sexual assault by Bill Cosby and Harvey Weinstein.
It premiered in LA in early March 2019, gaining much media report, most notably by CBS News who referred to the song as ‘ An anthem for the Me Too movement.’
Phoenix gained critical acclaim and was her most high-profile album to date. Unfortunately, an international tour of the album with her band was cancelled due to the 2020 – 21 COVID-19 pandemic restrictions.
In 2020, appalled, like most people, at the racist and unlawful murder of George Floyd, Sadie wrote and released the single, The Killing of George Floyd, which she performed on her regular live streams, and radio shows over that year.
Throughout her career as a Singer-Songwriter and Recording Artist, Sadie has also had an extremely successful career as a composer, musician, and musical director for Theatre, working in Theatres such as Theatre National de Nice, Theatre National de Chaillot, Paris, The Barbican, London, And The La Mama Experimental Theatre, New York.
In 2021, Sadie moved with her husband to France ( to escape the Brexit restrictions in the UK and remain able to work in Europe). There she was offered the Artistic Director and Resident Composer role for the renowned international Theatre Company Footsbarn Travelling Theatre. With them, Sadie created two productions for which she also wrote songs and music. The first, La Petite Gerda – a folk fairy tale based on The Snow Queen, which premiered at The Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2023 to critical acclaim.
Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night toured internationally in 2024, finishing with a sold-out run at West End Theatre, The Cockpit, in London in November 2024.
For both of these shows, Sadie was inspired by Anglo-American folk music, and performed the songs and music live at the side of the stage on acoustic guitar, mandolin, dulcimer, and harmonium, receiving a glowing 4-star review from London based national newspaper, The Observer, who said; ‘Jemmett’s Elizabethan / folk / Dylan style music was terrific – exemplary. ’
Sadie was recently named Artist of the Week by Eve Blair, who championed her music on her BBC radio Ulster show, The Late Show.
Earlier this year, Sadie was invited to take part in Letters to the Future, a new venture from Canadian fiddle player Miranda Mullholland, and UK producer Neil Pearson.
She is currently writing songs for this, which she hopes to perform early next year in both Canada and the UK, as part of a music-based performance with multiple Artists.
Sadie is working on a new album, The Frozen Ground, a collection of sociopolitical and protest songs that reflect the uncertain and difficult times we are living in. The album is due to be released early next year.
An international tour is currently being set up to promote the album.
May 2025