The Voice's Jermain Jackman: 'David Cameron is a good guy, but I don't like his policies'
Is Jermain Jackman the first winner of a TV talent contest more interested in politics than pop? The 19-year-old from Hackney gripped 6.6m viewers on Saturday, when he won the third series of The Voice. Unlike James Arthur or One Direction, though, Jackman mentioned his work with the Labour Party within seconds of addressing the judges. He is a member of the youth party and his ambition – to become, as he put it, "the nation's first singing black prime minister" – is unheard of in light entertainment, usually so removed from party politics that voting is something that happens only on premium-rate phonelines.
Watching the teenage activist capture the nation – with Ed Miliband, Diane Abbott and Stella Creasy all cheering him on via Twitter and Hackney exploding with delight on a weekly basis – well, it was quite a thing. And then he won! And now he refuses to limit his ambitions to the debut album he is recording. Jackman – whowas elected to Hackney's Youth Parliament, representing Stoke Newington – wants to make a difference.
Can he be for real? I meet him in his publicist's office, where framed photos of clients Paul McCartney and Gary Barlow line the walls. Within moments, Jackman is proudly showing me his phone, with texts from Keith Vaz saying: "You're going to be a great, great star," and missed calls from Ed Miliband trying to set up a lunch date this week. "He wouldn't have known my name before, now he's calling me on my mobile – the leader of the Labour Party!" says Jackman, chuffed to bits.
The Tories have been after him too – in the morning he is due to meet Boris Johnson for the second time, to launch a busking initiative in King's Cross. And he has already met David Cameron, at Number 10, when he won a citizenship award three years ago. Clearly, the power brokers know how much they could do with a young black man already schooled in community politics and social justice on their team.
"Someone said: 'Jermain, you're too nice to be a politician, you need to have something radical to say that shakes everything up, you're too general.' I said: 'Sometimes that's good!'. You have to side with the public, you have to seem normal." In fact, his greatest desire, as he repeats often, is "to inspire others".
Jackman still lives on the council estate where he grew up, in a fairly deprived part of east London. Gentrification and the Olympics have ploughed money into his area – but not for everyone. Cuts have affected his neighbourhood greatly, but crucially for the middle-of-the-road politicos courting him, Jackman can do bland rhetoric well.
"Everyone's saying to me: 'You're the new face of Hackney.' Hackney got attention for all the wrong reasons after the riots. Now it's getting it for all the right reasons. When people are asked what they think of it, people are gonna say: 'Jermain Jackman.' I want to inspire young people and make them believe that these things are possible. That's why I said I want to be the first black prime minister. Who else aims that high?"
But when pushed, he doesn't pretend everything is fine. The borough has just recorded the highest property price leap in the whole of the UK and the impact on its residents has been severe. "The Olympics were just down the road but we didn't feel like we could get involved – the door wasn't open. Now it feels like they never happened. Where's the legacy? Have you seen it?" We talk about the rows of local authority estates that have seen mass evictions to make way for luxury waterfront developments. "Some people call it ethnic cleansing," he says, but then stops short, with a politician's diplomacy. "I just call it mean. Those unaffordable homes – that's the Olympic legacy. I said to the Radio 1 producers, who set up workshops here: 'Don't just come into Hackney for a couple of weeks for good publicity, say you're coming back and just then leave.' But they never came back. Which is why I want to use my success to make things happen for the community myself."
Not everything about the new East London is bad. "There's a Premier Inn in Dalston! Five years ago if you'd told me there was a Premier Inn in Dalston I would have said: 'Shoot yourself, you sound stupid!' It's revitalising."
Jermain with Will.i.am on The Voice. Photograph: BBC
Jackman was raised in a very close Christian family, his mum a dental nurse, his dad a bus driver, and their granny on hand to tell tales of how hard it was growing up on the family farm in Guyana where there is still no phone. The children were all raised with scrupulous manners.
"When my mum comes home we always say: 'Good evening' and ask how her day has been. I was never allowed a sleepover, ever. Richard Branson's son Sam has asked me to do an amazing project with him but it's overseas and my mum worries I'm going to get hurt. I know she's going to have to let go soon and I have had girlfriends, but to this day I have never stayed the night at anyone's house apart from my own family."
