Ella Mai Howell is an English singer and songwriter who was born on November 3, 1994. She started her musical career in 2014 at the British and Irish Contemporary Music Institute in London, where she also participated in a trio’s audition for the eleventh season of The X Factor.
She released a four-track solo EP of original songs in 2015 called Distressed. American record producer Mustard found her on social media and signed her to his label, 10 Summers Records.
How did Ella Mai became famous?
From 2016 through 2018, she released three EPs on the label, including Time, Change, and Ready. Her self-titled first studio album was released in October 2018 and contained the songs “Boo’d Up” and “Trip”, which charted in the US Billboard Hot 100 at number 5 and 11, respectively.
In addition to Mai herself being nominated for British Breakthrough Artist at the 2019 Brit Awards, “Boo’d Up” was nominated for two Grammy Awards in 2019: Song of the Year and Best R&B Single, with the latter winning.
She received three honours at the 2019 Billboard Music Awards, including the title of Top R&B Artist.
