How Julie Adenuga Is Giving The Celebrity Interview Its Soul Back

Julie Adenuga knows she has a talent for disarming people and making even the most hard-shelled of celebrities feel comfortable sharing their business. “There’s no magic to it,” she laughs when we speak over Zoom, “I’m just a nice person!” There’s a unique pressure when interviewing someone who is known to be really good at interviewing people. After all, Julie Adenuga is recognised as one of Britain’s leading interviewers, from her early days at Rinse FM (the internet will never forget when she asked Jay-Z if he could ride a horse and he replied: “No, but I can ride a Porsche”) to her former role as one of Apple Beats 1’s presenters where she interviewed Cardi B, Billie Eilish, Little Simz and much more. Hailing from Tottenham, London, Adenuga is an influential voice in music and culture, and with her brothers, grime artists Skepta and Jme, is embedded into the fabric of Black British music and youth culture. So, yeah, my questions had to be good. 

I spoke to Adenuga ahead of the release of the new BET UK show, Now You Know, where her talent for interviewing comes into focus. The series is currently showing on YouTube and Channel 5 and sees Adenuga speak to some of the biggest names in UK entertainment, including Love Island presenter Maya Jama, YouTuber and musician KSI, R&B star Mahalia and TV personality Big Zuu, in intimate one-on-one settings. Working with a team of researchers, the interview series is unique as it shows Adenuga’s process before the interview; from travelling to Maya Jama’s childhood home in Bristol, visiting the parks where she had childhood scraps, and deciding on the best way to approach sensitive topics.

Now feels like an especially good time to examine what it really takes to successfully interview a celebrity. The celebrity interview is now a huge part of the social media influencer industrial complex —  as in, it seems like everyone is doing it. Podcasts are extremely lucrative businesses, and many entertainment reporters have been replaced by social media talent on red carpets, inspiring growing conversations about who should get to interview celebrities and who shouldn’t. 

There is an art to interviewing. And Julie Adenuga is an artist (even if she wouldn’t say so). In Now You Know, she approaches her guests with genuine curiosity, a relaxed yet expert demeanour, and they relax in her presence like old friends — some of them are (“I have never thought about kids before you asked!” KSI said in his episode). The interviews are intimate but make for fun, chilled viewing. It’s also a great way to acknowledge the Black British talent who have created huge shifts in the culture and get to know them more as people. 

When we speak, Adenuga is fun, frank, and as cool as she seems online. We chat about the love of people, the biggest shifts in Black British music and the exquisite Jorja Smith rapping on that AJ Tracey tune.

Julie Adenuga: The format of the show came from me seeing how interviews have changed and how they exist now, especially throughout the pandemic — which feels like 700 years ago — where I saw a lot of people interviewing, and I just felt like interviews could be better. [Interviews] have become more like a [surface-level] Q&A, and I wanted people to see how I approach an interview, the ways I was taught and trained and what's important to me when interviewing someone. That’s not to necessarily say that I think my way is the best way, but I think it's important for people to see the breadth of what's possible. You can do a Q&A style interview, but there's also the more in-depth David Letterman-style interviews, and so, I just wanted people to understand what that all looks like if you are getting into [the industry] for the first time. And so the idea of Now You Know was just about that. I want people to see what goes into it, what that process is, how stressful it can be, how you can change your mind at the last minute.

JA: [I think they may be surprised by] how many people it takes to make a show. In the show, you see me, Ade, and Alvin sitting down —we bring in journalists, researchers and friends of the person. That's one way of doing it. Depending on who it is I’m interviewing, I will go on the person's social media, see who's commenting on their content and then hit them up… say you like Vince Staples, [I’d ask a fan] what would you ask him if you were if you were going to talk to him or what you want to know about him?

I do this often because I feel like my point of view is only one perspective, but it doesn't mean that everybody who watches the interview cares about what my perspective is. I think involving other people in your interviews is important because you're only one person, and you only have one viewpoint, and that's not what an interview is about.

JA: It's funny that you mentioned egocentric interviews... Nowadays, you see the ‘actor on actor’ interviews, and they always feel nice because you know that both people are on common ground when they're talking to each other, and they understand the other person's journey. But sometimes, there are interviews when it's two talents speaking to each other, and it seems like it doesn't matter about understanding the other person's journey; you've got two heavyweights talking, and neither person is really that interested in the other person. It's more about what I look like. So those are not great for me to watch.

JA: I interview a lot of people whom I've met before, so the walls are down immediately because it's not our first conversation. But then, when I think about people I haven't met before, um… I think I'm just a nice person. It sounds so basic! I think I'm a nice person.

[People feel comfortable with me because] I understand the other person's journey because of my experience within entertainment. I am able to put [the interviewee] on a pedestal so that people can see them. I speak to them in a way that allows them to feel like this is about them. Most importantly, I’ll ask questions that maybe make you think deeply about things in a way that you haven't before. And I think that can be quite disarming for someone, to feel comfortable in the fact that I am here as a service.

And so my goal is not to outshine someone. I'm not trying to trick you. I'm not trying to do anything but make you think at the end of the conversation: That was really cool, and I'm really glad I got to say those things. But I don't know what the secret is to it. To be honest, people say it about me, but it's not something that I'm consciously thinking of when I'm talking to people. There’s not some kind of magic Wingardium Leviosa spell. It’s not that. I can't explain it, but I hope it continues forever because it is very important for me to be around people, for them to feel that way about me, whether I’m interviewing a celebrity or talking to a stranger.

JA: To be honest, no one surprised me because I genuinely believe that everyone's just a person. And I think if you approach a situation correctly, they're going to come to you as a person.

 But I think what might surprise audiences is potentially the KSI episode. I think people only ever see KSI as a loud, kind of gregarious, out there in your face dude. So I think potentially it will surprise people watching, but for me it wasn't surprising because he's just a person. And especially because we're British as well, I think it's very hard to be a loud character as a British person because [other British] people are just like… [laughs, kisses teeth and side eyes]. You know what I mean, this is not Hollywood!

For example, if I were interviewing Cardi B. I would expect her to still be Cardi B versus her being Belcalis. I don't expect to get Belcalis in an interview. I would imagine it would take me maybe an hour and a half, maybe two hours, before she [let her guard down]. But I think in Hollywood, naturally, you are acting because that's what comes with the territory. But in England… even if [the interview] was with David Beckham or Victoria Beckham, I would imagine that at some point, if I sit down with them in a room, you're just going to be a human being. I would have been more surprised if KSI was being quote-unquote KSI in the interview. But everyone was just themselves.

JA: I'm still passionate about it because there are still people in this world who strongly believe that they have something to offer that is useful or entertaining, or is groundbreaking. Those people still exist, and those people tend to be really passionate —  and they tend to be a little bit crazy! — they're not jaded, they haven't been beaten down so much that they think I'm gonna stop and just figure something else out. They bring something to the table, and in a world where there's so much going on, to meet people like that is inspiring. It makes you feel like there's still more to come.

That's exciting to me.  So, as long as those people exist, I'm always gonna be passionate about talking to them because we don't have all the answers for everything. And so anybody that is willing to find new answers, mate… yeah, I'm in. I want to hear from them. 

JA: The biggest shift I've seen is still music. Maybe I'm biased because that's my passion, and I love it so much, but I would say it's still music. I love watching Pink Pantheress, Odeal and Jim Legxacy. Jorja Smith rapping on that A.J. Tracy tune “Crush”… that was exceptional, exceptional! That's the biggest shift for me; people doing stuff and being really fucking good at it and it not being something that we expected. When I heard Jorja rapping, I was like ‘oh my gosh, I feel alive. I'm going to go for a 5K jog!’ Like rapping in a Brummie accent as a woman who can sing as good as Jorja can sing — yeah, that’s nuts! They found their thing, they're trying something, and it is so good. Raye's another one. Watching Raye performing at the Grammys, I was watching it nearly crying —  'cause I'm like, bro, this is crazy. I think the biggest shift is people really caring about the art that they make and feeling so strongly about it, and experimenting within it and being talented at it.

JA: It’s about making sure people know what's available. I love US music. I grew up on it. I love listening to it. I think they've got some of the most talented musicians in the universe ever to exist. It goes without saying. But I think not focusing on British artists perpetuates the fact that people think that they don't exist or that they're not as talented. So, for me I'm happy to tell you all the time about the British artists.

It's not because I think every other artist is not good, but it's just that I want you to be aware of what is available. Then if you listen to all of it and you don't like it, that's fine, but you won't because there are really talented people in the UK. And so, it's important for me to be the person who shows you what's there, what's available, what you can listen to. There are enough people talking about US artists, I don't need to be another person doing that.

JA: I would like for what people are achieving to be documented better. And for conversations around that to be clearly stated, versus just gossip stuff. One of the things that came up in our Big Zuu episode when we were doing our research and talking to him was how little people understand what he's doing. Big Zuu has a cooking show, a production company, and two Baftas. He's hosting two different shows at the same time. And when we were researching, it wasn’t there... So I would say that I wish more publications were better in general at reporting on things.

JA: I wanna be more British in the US! I wanna do more Brit stuff in the US! I joined Rinse FM in 2010, and I'm 15 years in now of seeing music, culture, talent, of speaking to people, of being present in studio sessions, of being able to document and see the actual timelines of people's careers from their first single to wherever they get to and beyond.

One part of me thinks, "Okay, Julie, you know, this was fun. Just go and sit down now and relax and do something else with your life." But another part of me thinks, hip-hop just celebrated 50 years. There are people who are still alive now talking about hip-hop when it first started. They still have a space in that culture. And not to say that the interviewers of the world are the most important — the artists and the talent are the most important part of culture and entertainment — but the people that are present and witnessing it and documenting, that can speak to LL Cool J's first album versus, when he became an actor, those people who have all of that knowledge are important to the growth of that community and that culture.

And so, I think in a world where Raye's performing at the Grammys, Central Cee is touring the US and so many UK artists are having huge careers not just in the UK, I feel obliged, and I feel it's almost mandatory for me to be a person who can speak to that. I am in a really good position to be able to continue talking about British culture and music.