Jessica Sweetman has revealed she almost missed out on casting Peaky Blinders actor Emmett J. Scanlan in her new music video — all because she wanted to slip out for a Nando’s.
The singer had just performed her track Rise Up, out today (10.04.26), at the Irish Post Awards when she planned to head home early.
Speaking exclusively to BANG Showbiz, Jessica recalled: “So we’re at the Irish Post Awards, I was performing the song Rise Up.
“And I performed it and it was really funny because I was there with my brother.
“And there was an after party and I’d performed the song and I was like, ‘Oh, I’m gonna go home now. I’ve done my kind of my work, my performed it.’
And I can be actually really shy. Like people don’t realise it, but I can be really shy and I was like, ‘There’s so many people there, like thousands and I said, ‘I’m just going to go now.'”
Her brother convinced her to stay for the after‑party — a decision that proved crucial.
She continued: “And my brother was like, ‘Come on, let’s stay and go out, go to the after party.’ I’m like, ‘I’m just going to go and get Nando’s mate.’
He was like, ‘no’.”
Emmett – whose other credits include Fool Me Once and Hollyoaks – had already seen her performance and told her he loved the song.
She added: “So I ended up staying, and we went to the bar afterwards, and when we end up bumping into Emmett, and he says, ‘You know, it’s on my bucket list to be in a music video.’ And I was like, ‘I’ve got one for you.’
“And he loved the song. He’d seen me performing. He goes, ‘I love the song’. And then before we knew it, a few months, you know, fast forward, we were in Hastings.”
Speaking about the collaboration, Emmett said: “Jessica was so insanely collaborative and trusting throughout the whole process of making this video.
“I really felt invited into her story, her journey.
“The fact that the song is, in my opinion, a total beauty, was just an added bonus.
“I hope you love watching this video as much as we loved shooting it.”