“I love this moment. It’s so nice,” Dora Jar says, tilting her head back to soak in the Madrid sun shining on her face. It’s a particularly warm winter Sunday in the Spanish capital and the singer, born Dora Jarkowski, is feeling the city’s embrace — both physically and metaphorically. “It’s like cinema lighting,” she adds, still amazed by the golden rays.
Twelve hours ago, Dora Jar opened for the first night of Gracie Abrams’s The Secret of Us European tour, where fans ushered Jar on stage with loud chants and a galaxy of phone lights often reserved for headliners. In three hours, she’ll head to the almost 14,000-capacity venue to do it all again for night two, but for now, her sole focus is an order of Turkish eggs, her milk oolong, and enjoying the sun as dogs pass us by on their morning strolls. “I love dogs so much. They’re my life force,” Jar quietly quips as she sips her tea.
To an onlooker, this might all feel like a dream. The type of idyllic scenario you only see in movies or read about in books. And while Jar acknowledges the specialty of her situation, there are always moments that will bring her back to reality. At last night’s concert, Jar performed her new single “Lucky” for the first time since its official release, and, as luck would have it, her mic cut off in the middle of the song. “Shall we restart from verse two?” she asked the audience with a smile. “It’s my favorite verse anyways.”
Inspired by an on-and-off relationship and its subsequent breakups, “Lucky,” as Jar revealed on stage, took five years to complete, and she was not going to let a malfunction ruin the moment. “I actually couldn’t hear myself [in my in-ears] at all throughout the concert, but I just pushed through,” she confesses with a smile. It’s that sort of relentless positivity that’s so alluring about Jar. She refuses to let a minor glitch determine her day and always finds something to be thankful for.
Before the tour started, Jar found herself in a similar predicament when a fan started an online petition demanding her removal and replacement as the Abrams’s opener. While Abrams immediately slammed the petition, Jar took it in stride and brushed it off, making jokes across her social channels. She was not going to let an online petition set the tone for their month-long journey ahead, but even if it did, it could only be up from there. She might have ordered Turkish eggs today, but she seems to like her life sunny side up.
Between rehearsals and a few hours at the flea market, Teen Vogue caught up with Jar to talk about the tour’s kickoff and expectations, life on the road, and her mystic connection with music and light.
TV: Tell me about the concert yesterday. How was it? How did you feel seeing so many people show up to support you?
Dora Jar: They fully sent it for me. I just felt so welcomed, and with all the technical difficulties that come with the first show, it couldn’t have gone better, and it was mostly because of the energy of the crowd and Gracie’s fans being so sweet.
TV: I think the technical difficulties actually bring you closer to the audience.
DJ: I feel that too. One of my favorite things about live music is that uncertainty and getting to see a real moment from artists, and when a show is too perfect or too dialed [in], I sort of feel like, “Okay, well, this could have just been on the radio or whatever.” It’s when it’s human that’s what makes it exciting.
TV: You move a lot on stage, and I wanted to ask you about that since I saw on Instagram that you had spinal surgery years ago.
DJ: Oh my god, I really appreciate you bringing it up. It’s a big part of my life, and it’s also something I think about every day. I’m grateful for my health. Health issues have been sort of a theme in my family’s life. My sister had really severe cerebral palsy, and so my awareness of body privilege is very strong.
