She Kicks a Beat: Sure Starter Carter’s True Blue Beginning (Jess Carter interview)

Jess Carter made her Birmingham debut at sixteen in a Champions League quarter-final against an Arsenal side containing Kelly Smith, Rachel Yankey and Casey Stoney, and was named player of the match – and what she remembers with less fondness is the initiation, singing One Direction on the team bus under considerable pressure. Music has stayed with her since: r&b mostly, Chris Brown and Beyonce, and the old-school records her American father played when she was young. Her first album was McFly, a guilty pleasure. Now moving to Chelsea, she names Millie Bright as the dressing-room DJ, and picks Chloe Peplow as the worst singer she has heard, on the strength of one rendition of My Humps.