Ella Mai

Background

Ella Mai was born in London on November 3, 1994, to a Jamaican mother and an Irish father. She moved from London to New York City when she was 12 because her mother got a teaching job there. Mai’s transition to life in New York City was difficult because she was often bullied for her accent. She graduated from Queens High School of Teaching in Glen Oaks, Queens, before returning to England.

Mai’s singing career began with studying at the British and Irish Modern Music Institute London (B.I.M.M.) in 2014. During that time, she competed in series 11 of “The X Factor” as part of a trio named Arize but didn’t advance beyond the initial audition. In 2015, Mai uploaded a four-track solo E.P. of originally recorded songs to SoundCloud titled ‘Troubled.’ Soon after, she was discovered on Instagram and signed to D.J. Mustard’s label, 10 Summers Records, and Interscope Records. A year later, she released ‘Time,’ the first single in her E.P. trilogy. Mai released her second E.P., ‘Change,’ in late 2016, and her third, ‘Ready.’

In 2018, she released her single ‘Trip,’ which peaked at number 11 on the Billboard Hot 100. The same year, she released her self-titled debut album, a 16-track set featuring ‘Boo’d Up,’ with guest appearances from Chris Brown, John Legend, and H.E.R. The album sold 69,000 album-equivalent units, with 17,000 coming from pure sales. In 2020, Mai released the single ‘Not Another Love Song.’ Two years later, she released ‘D.F.M.U’ and announced the title of her second studio album, “Heart on My Sleeve,” which debuted at number 15 on the Billboard 200, making it her second top 20 on the chart.