About This Album
Ella Mai wasn't unknown before she signed with Mustard's 10 Summers label, but after the ink dried, the contemporary R&B singer/songwriter achieved true international stardom with "Boo'd Up" (2018), a sparkling slow jam exhibiting her casually commanding vocals. A Top Ten U.S. pop hit and a Grammy winner for Best R&B Song, the track drove its parent album, Ella Mai, to the upper reaches of the charts in the U.S. and the artist's native U.K., and was eventually joined by three additional gold, silver, and platinum singles. Mai had seven RIAA-certified hits as a headliner by the time she issued Heart on My Sleeve (2022), her second full-length. It reached number two on the R&B chart, prompting a 2023 deluxe edition ahead of her 2024 EP 3. Raised in southwest London, Ella Mai Howell moved to New York at the age of 12, then returned to England after she graduated from high school. In 2014, while attending the British and Irish Modern Music Institute in London, she competed on The X Factor as part of a trio named Arize, but the group didn't advance beyond the initial audition and subsequently broke up. The following year, Ella Mai uploaded a solo EP of originals to SoundCloud and clips of covers to Instagram. The latter caught the attention of producer Mustard, who in January 2016 announced that Mai had signed to his Interscope-distributed 10 Summers label. Mai made her proper debut the following month with Time, a poised EP of sleek, contemporary R&B. Featuring the Ty Dolla $ign collaboration "She Don't," the six-track release introduced an artist who could sing of fierce loyalty and ruthless spite in an incisive manner. Mai quickly followed up with two more Mustard-assisted EPs: Change, a November 2016 release, and Ready, issued four months later. Ready highlight "Boo'd Up," a love ballad reminiscent of R&B's pre-new jack swing era, cracked the Billboard Hot 100 in April 2018 and three months later peaked at number five -- an unusually long period of ascent. "Trip" arrived as "Boo'd Up" began its slide off the
