Julie Adenuga on Top 5, Taste, and The Art of a Great Music Argument

Julie Adenuga joins our scheduled call from the front seat of her car. It’s a bright day, and she appears to be basking in the sunlight. She’s slightly aloof, slightly nonchalant. There’s a sense this isn’t the most pressing thing on her schedule today. Even still, she’s disarmingly warm and extremely present. Her eyes are kind, and when she smiles as I introduce myself, it’s clear she means it.

Photographer: Jake Green. Stylist: Rhea Francois. Make Up Artist: Maha Alselami

Julie is speaking with New Wave about the return of her beloved show, Julie’s Top 5, a well structured yet chaotic series that brings artists and music lovers together to debate their five favourite songs. After a hiatus, the show returns this April in a new live format, promising infinitely more entertaining arguments.

We begin with how her day has been. She laughs and explains that she has already cancelled part of quite a full day to spend time with her niece, who is going through what she refers to as “growing pains”. In a long list of roles Julie holds, nothing could outrank being “Aunt Julie”. The rest of her day will be spent “stretching”.

It’s a small yet gorgeous moment, and it says a lot about the life she has built for herself.

When discussing the trajectory of said life, Julie leans back and reflects on her 19-year-old self. “I was winging it,” she confesses, recounting early days working ’ordinary jobs’, years spent figuring things out daily. At a point in time, she was working at an Apple Store while presenting on London’s Rinse FM, unsure where exactly life would take her.

What she was sure of, was that she didn’t want to grow older without “freedom”.

“I just knew I didn’t want to grow up without options, without confidence, and without space to create.”

In 2010 she convinced the then-pirate radio station Rinse FM to let her host a show despite having no broadcasting experience.  What she lacked in experience, energy compensated for. The show was easy to love: great music, loose conversation, and unfiltered energy that made listeners feel as if they were sitting in the room with her.

Within a few years she was hosting the station’s drive-time slot. In 2015 Apple chose her as one of the headline presenters for Beats 1, its global radio station broadcast to listeners around the world.

For Julie, that moment remains surreal.

“I didn’t have a manager, I didn’t have anyone. It was just me, conducting my own business. When they told me how much I was going to earn, I just thought… I’ve done it. I’m doing what I love and I don’t have to worry about surviving anymore.”

Julie’s contribution to culture is prodigious. What she brings to any space are great instincts, free flowing personality, and an ability to host a real argument.

This is why Top 5 thrives. The show is chaotic purposefully. Her laughter, the interruptions, her unapologetic self are the green light for her guests to, also, be freely themselves.

It’s a beautiful skill: to host a conversation without dominating it, and to challenge people without dismissing them.

As a result, the show is [mostly] a safe space, though Julie admits she does quietly judge people by their music taste.

Photographer: Jake Green. Stylist: Rhea Francois. Make Up Artist: Maha Alselami

“Your taste is everything!  It’s not just aesthetic. It’s how you move through the world. It tells me who you are before you even open your mouth.”

Still, disagreement is part of the appeal. If anything, she believes we need more of it.

“Spaces like this are what we need. Places where people can argue and still leave respecting each other. That’s rare. And when it happens, it’s magic.”

This new season of Top 5 is bigger, bolder, more ambitious. Julie has expanded the brand, experimenting with live events, merchandise, and new formats that will bring audiences directly into the conversation. It’s a “labour of love”, entirely self-produced, a larger-than-life endeavour that she somehow balances alongside her other projects.

“I want everyone to feel like this space is for them. Whether you’re a lifelong fan of Black British music or you’re just curious, you can come in, argue about songs, and enjoy it.”

The show revolves around music, but its real subject is taste. Julie creates the space for people to defend theirs.

She is the spark.

She shines; the arguments take care of themselves.

Julie’s Top 5 returns April 14th with a live show at London’s Roundhouse.