Posted by Chris Randle on 03/14/2011 at 5:51 AM News

The Popdust Files: jessie j, saturday night live, snl

The musical guest on yesterday’s Zach-Galifinakis-hosted Saturday Night Live was the British singer Jessie J, who’s receiving an unusually strong American push for a U.K. musician four months out from their first single (including the requisite Dr. Luke collaborations). The BBC gave her its Sound of 2011 prize, but the evidence from SNL suggests that should be taken as a grim warning; Jessie J seems to compensate for her rather fuzzy persona with unnerving levels of “quirky” self-aggrandizing. Her performance of “Mama Knows Best” was full of such moments, from the geometric Louise Brooks bob to impromptu scatting and her decision to lie down mid-song. At 0:20 or so her expression resembles a cartoon reptile eyeing the nearest mouse:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83eiUDGjUjw

Then there was the number where she sings: “We need to take it back in time / When music made us all unite / And it wasn’t low blows and video hos.” Back in time before Jessie J got her start as a major-label songwriter, presumably…