[CHICAGO, IL.] Initially, I wanted to go to the #SweetSexySavage Tour just for Kehlani, the headliner, duhhh, however, that quickly changed when I discovered Ella Mai’s music. A close friend of mine, Josélys, who I consider to be an A&R for Def Jam Recordings, or at least, in my opinion, needs to have that position there. Anyways, we were chatting about the newly released album from Kehlani and she insisted that I start listening to Ella Mai and I thought nothing of it, yet, I still looked into Mai’s music. Through the mobile music streaming app Tidal, I searched for Ella Mai and the first song I played was ‘10,000 Hours‘ simply because it’s the most played/popular song from Mai. Just from the title of the song, I immediately knew that she was referring to the Malcolm Gladwell book titled Outliers, a book that gives insight for a person to reach a professional status of any skill is based on putting in 10,000 hours of dedication in practising that specific skill. Right away, my interest peaked then instantly I became enthralled with her music because I’m a sucker for love songs.
When I say I was OBSESSED with SweetSexySavage I legit couldn’t listen to anything else. After discovering Ella Mai’s three EP’s nothing else existed in my mind, that legit has been the only thing I’ve been listening to non-stop for a majority of the year. It became a problem, and I noticed it turned into an addiction when I started asking friends if they were going to Ella Mai’s concert when she wasn’t the headliner.😂😂. I can only pray that these next few months go by quickly and Mai drops her debut album and releases her very own headlining tour dates. Which she mentioned to me that she’ll start making moves towards the end of the year or expect announcements right after the start of the new year.
Special appreciation to Meko and Affan for granting StyleHeirs.com press access to the SweetSexySavage Tour at the Concord Music Hall in Chicago, Illinois. The set started with Mai performing her 2nd most popular song, titled, Boo’d up, according to Tidal. For the attendees -that already knew of her- were super hyped for her performance and as the show progressed the rest of the crowd was born into the circle of life that the young simba exemplifies. It’s wild to think that only a year ago Mai issued TIME as her first miniature body of work and I’m not really familiar with this EP. So when she performed Don’t Want You, it was all new to me and naturally, I got into it. Mainly, because it resembles a lot of the melodies from the 90’s and the hook just sinks into your mind and gives the listener the power to stand up for themselves with self-love and confidence to move on.
The crowd fed off of her energy and vocals, especially when Mai carried her notes through a variation of tones. The girl can sáng! South London is where she’s from but she’s about to go to the top of music charts, to the Grammy’s, and to many red carpet appearances – she better hit me up to help dress her. From tonight, I have to admit that Mai taught me a thing in fashion with her simple attire. Which, for concert openers, it’s completely the norm to come to the stage with the basic essentials and she came out with her natural frizzy-voluminous hair, a bold orange t-shirt and a cuffed straight-leg camo pant with white shoes. What I learned is that a loose straight-leg pant can be cuffed and not look strange at all, it’s something that I lack confidence in and will have to muster up the courage to try it out.
Out of everything from tonight, what stood out to me the most, or my favourite part was the reaction from the concert goers. As Mai closed her set with her most recognised hit titled She Don’t featuring Ty Dolla $ign, the audience reacted with an explosion of thrills. The outspoken feedback I overheard was just filled with excitement and a testimony to the magnitude of what Ella Mai will accomplish as she begins her dignified musical career. “I do know her!” and “Wait, I love this song, I’ve heard it before!” were some of the reactions I heard from those around me in the crowd. “She’s really pretty, she got an accent. I definitely have to download her music!” was my most favourite response as Mai ended her slot.
Another proof of Mai’s influence in music is hearing about how the show in Grand Rapids was rescheduled due to illness with Kehlani. In Grand Rapids, the first time around Kehlani got to the stage but couldn’t continue with the show and rescheduled the show after the openers already performed their bits. Since the openers were able to perform twice for the Grand Rapids crowd the audience returned knowing the lyrics to all of Ella Mai’s tracks and Mai was able to experience a full crowd singing along to her lyrics.
Currently, the best method to listening to every song from Ella Mai is on her SoundCloud profile, search her name or simply visit https://soundcloud.com/itsellamai to get connected to your newest obsession. On her SoundCloud profile, you’ll find all three of her EP’s: TIME, CHANGE, and my favourite READY. Please make sure to listen to ANYMORE, WHO KNEW, Breakfast In Bed – which are my top three favourites.
www.ellamai.com/
soundcloud.com/itsellamai
Inherit Love, I AM,
#StyleHeirs.
Courtesy of Maya Iman.
Courtesy of Maya Iman.
I want this look!
Selfie with Ella Mai and Jahkoy.
Boo’d Up with the bae.