‘We cried, it was emotional’: Maya Jama on being herself as new Glow Up host | Television

‘We cried, it was emotional’: Maya Jama on being herself as new Glow Up host | Television

When lockdown shut the nation indoors, many experimented with sourdough, sculpting and stitching – something to occupy our hearts, minds and fingers to distract us from impending doom. So it appears solely pure that the telly world mirrored that, serving up our distractions in competitors kind. Stuart Heritage wrote final week that the Great British system could have reached saturation level as The Great Pottery Throw Down, The Great British Sewing Bee and all the remaining are joined by All That Glitters, taking the format down the jewelry line. However, this week, Glow Up additionally returns to BBC Three, taking on one factor most of us have performed considerably much less of over the previous yr: make-up.Admittedly, a contest like Glow Up won’t be for everybody, however anybody with an Instagram account (or who has a baby with an Instagram account) will know that the world of make-up is about extra than simply contouring and faux eyelashes. The finest challenges on the sequence contain completely remodeling faces, with actually spectacular outcomes. It’s exhausting to tear your eyes away from the trembling fingers twiddling with prosthetics, particularly on well-known movie and TV units with contestants competing beneath the watchful gaze of award-winning visitor judges from the trade.Glow Up MUA Craig. Photograph: Guy Levy/BBC/Wall To WallGlow Up caters extra to BBC Three’s youthful demographic and, as it rolls into its third season, it is evident to see why. Veteran make-up artists and judges Val Garland and Dominic Skinner stay on the present, with 26-year-old presenter Maya Jama changing Stacey Dooley – a extra pure alternative of bubbly presenter and supportive sister to the younger contestants. “I don’t understand how concerned you’re presupposed to get in these jobs with individuals,” she says, fresh-faced and glowing in her sports activities bra, as she tries to slot in some residence exercises between interviews. “We cried at factors; it was emotional. Maybe it would have been completely different if it wasn’t a pandemic as a result of everybody goes residence and lives their lives individually, however as a result of it was our entire life for that month and a half, you set your all into it.”Jama’s trademark cheekiness interprets nicely on display screen for the third sequence, absolutely glammed up and throwing encouraging phrases to nervous contestants such as younger Riley, who has by no means performed make-up on a mannequin aside from herself earlier than – “Poppin’ the cherry at the moment!” – however she says that working with the younger make-up artists (MUAs) additionally helped her replicate on her personal picture. “Sometimes on this trade, world, media, you may form of get misplaced in it and suppose that you simply’ve bought to be a sure means like you need to be this manner and you need to be correct,” she says, placing on a fake posh voice. “Whereas, with the MUAs I was identical to their mate and the way I’d be in regular life they usually appreciated that a lot … It was like a affirmation to me that I don’t want to alter the way in which I’m to do sure reveals.”Glow Up host Maya Jama (centre) with judges Dominic Skinner (left) and Val Garland (proper). Photograph: David Ellis/BBC/Wall to Wall/Sophie WadePart of Glow Up’s attraction is the healthful, inclusive content material. The format is designed to focus on the contestants and their work with little or no bitchiness between them. But Judge Val serves as the competitors enforcer, ensuring there is a component of strain to maintain contestants on their toes. She deftly dodges a query about which make-up artists (MUAs) she likes most. “For me, it’s crucial that I give everybody the identical type of consideration as a result of it can be unfair to have favourites,” she says, diplomatically. It can be a stretch to name her the unhealthy cop to Dom’s good cop, however she brings the mandatory self-discipline and trepidation wanted for TV, which additionally interprets into actual world professionalism required to work within the trade.“I’ll come throughout as a bit of bit chilly. I hope not,” she says. “But, I usually discover myself getting fairly emotional as a result of I do need them to be the very best. And I understand how exhausting it was for me. You get so many knockbacks, and also you’ve simply bought to maintain bashing on that door till anyone both opens it otherwise you’ve knocked it down. And that’s the way in which you succeed on this enterprise.”Things have modified quite a bit because the judges entered the trade, not least the appearance of social media. “When I began out nobody knew what [a makeup artist] was” says Skinner – now there may be much more alternative to display your expertise on-line, although there are nonetheless limitations when it involves entry to work throughout the skilled industries. “There are cultural causes, monetary causes,” he says. “I got here from a really privileged state of affairs the place, being [from] an upper-middle-class household, I was capable of simply go off and be artsy and my dad and mom had been going to pay for it. But I do know lots of people don’t have that chance.”Glow Up MUA Sophie. Photograph: Guy Levy/BBC/Wall To WallThat is a part of the explanation why range is necessary on the present. Makeup naturally lends itself simply to various illustration. Different faces create completely different canvases and make-up has lengthy been used as both a masks or a type of expression for people who find themselves grappling with their id and sense of self. Therefore the present attracts a variety of MUAs from various backgrounds, whether or not that be race, sexuality or distinctive facial options not often seen on TV, such as one MUA’s stunning port-wine-stain birthmark. Though true range is probably proven most clearly when one contestant asks one other, “Are you pranging concerning the time?”, in a thick scouse accent, to which he replies “… you imply, like, scared?” in an Irish one.Glow Up MUA Xavi. Photograph: Guy Levy/BBC/Wall To Wall“We wish to see extra inclusion and variety,” says Garland, “however basically, we must always simply be searching for nice make-up artists – that ought to be our goal. Not, ‘have we bought the proper variety of individuals and kinds?’ within the present. But I’ve to say that, with Glow Up, it occurred naturally and that’s as it ought to be.”Overall, the present is designed to carry a little bit of hope, creativity and upbeat vitality to a younger viewers, who’ve been locked at residence for a yr. “I really like this type of stuff, like the entire dynamic of anyone that has a bit of dream or an enormous dream,” says Jama. “And that is like my dream, what I’m doing in the mean time … the message that I attempt to push out there may be that irrespective of the place you’re from, it doesn’t matter what your begin in life is, it doesn’t matter what conditions you’ve been put in or setbacks or losses, you are able to do no matter you wish to do. If you set your thoughts to it, you may really chase your dream. It sounds so corny, however it’s actual life.”Glow Up sequence three begins 20 April, BBC One, 10.45pm and on iPlayer

Recommended For You

About the Author: Jessica