Ella Mai is a British-born singer and songwriter. Her journey to becoming a professional singer began in 2014 when she took part in season 11 of The X Factor as part of a trio called Arize.
She typically posted 15-second clips of herself singing covers of popular songs on Instagram, and was eventually noticed by DJ Mustard after posting a video of Fetty Wap’s hit single 679. DJ Mustard contacted her and later signed her to his label 10 Summers Records and Interscope Records.
After working in the music industry for a few years, Ella broke through in 2018 with her hit song Boo’d Up . The song was nominated in the 2018 MTV Video Music Awards for the Song of Summer and won this year’s Soul Train Music Awards for Best Song of the Year, The Ashford & Simpson Songwriter’s Award and Best Female R&B/Soul Artist. It was also nominated for the 2019 Grammy Awards for Best R&B Song and Song of the Year.
Who is Ella Mai?
Ella Mai Howell was born on November 3, 1994 to a Jamaican mother and Irish father. The singer’s mother is an American jazz music lover and was named after America’s jazz queen, Ella Fitzgerald.
Born and raised in South London, England, she performed there as a young child after enrolling in a performing arts school. At the age of 12 she moved to Jamaica Queens, New York due to her mother’s teaching job and spent 5 years there before returning to the UK at the age of 17 after graduating from Queens High School of Teaching in Glen Oaks. queens
In 2015, Ella Mai uploaded to SoundCloud an EP consisting of a four-part solo entitled Trouble. She was later discovered by DJ Mustard and subsequently signed to his label.
The following year, Ella released Zeit , the first in her trilogy of EPs, followed by her second and third EPs, Wechsel (in November 2016) and Ready (in February 2017). Little did she know the Boo’d Up ” featured on the EP would become so popular on both social media and nightclubs within a matter of months.
Her popularity as a singer rose many notches when she toured with Kehlani on her SweetSexySavage World Tour, and after serving as the opening act on the tour, her music reached a wider audience with the song Boo’d Up Got So Much In Spring 2018 played radio.
After the huge success of Boo’d Up , she released a video for it. The next month the single was in the top ten in the US. It ranked 5th on the US Billboard Hot 100 and stayed at the top for eleven straight weeks. It broke the record for most weeks at No. 1 of any song by a woman on the R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart. It was also ranked as the third best song of the year by Billboard magazine in December 2018 and has more than 34 million streams on Spotify.
Ella Mai released the single Excursion on August 3rd, 2018 and on the 18th of the following month she released a music video for it. The song was number 47 in the UK and number 11 on the United States Billboard Hot 100.
On October 12, 2018, Ella’s self-proclaimed full-length debut album was released. The 16-track set, featuring their platinum single, Boo’d Up, featured three guest appearances from Chris Brown, John Legend and HER
Interesting facts about The Boo’d Up Singer
1. During her childhood, Ella was a member of the church choir and auditioned for school musicals.
2. Ella Mai gave her first-ever BET Awards performance at the 18th Annual BET Awards held at the Microsoft Theater on June 24, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. This was the result of their breakthrough single Boo’d Up Despite its success, it was assigned to the Nissan Stage, which is smaller and primarily used to showcase up-and-coming artists. While she was still singing the love song, she faded from the screen when commercials surfaced featuring performances that became the anger of fans, who wasted no time in opening up about it on Twitter.
3. After Ella rose to fame, many of her fans began asking questions about her relationship status. Well, Ella is said to have a boyfriend, but she’s decided to keep her husband out of the spotlight.
4. In 2016 and 2017, the British singer had an estimated net worth of $300,000 and $450,000 respectively, but with the success of her Boo’d Up single in 2018, her net worth rose to $600,000. She has made most of her money from her music career and it won’t be long before she becomes a millionaire.
5. As is usual with stars, Ella Mai has some custom items that she sells. These include the Signature L/S Tee ($40), Boo’d Up Hat ($25), Boo’d Up Crewneck Sweatshirt ($45) and Cell Phone Case ($20).
6. On October 22, 2018, the Boo’d Up singer announced her debut European and US tour, which will run from January 8 to March 28, 2019.
7. The fast-rising singer is of slim build, measuring 5ft 7in in height and weighing 55kg. She has dark brown hair and eye color, curly hair, full lips and a dimpled smile.
Bonus Fact: She made her television debut in 2018 on the comedy talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live!