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Interscope RecordsBritish newcomer Ella Mai is celebrating hitting number one on the Billboard Hot R&B Songs chart for the first time with “Boo’d Up.” She says recording the song was a “strange” experience because it was her first time working in a professional studio.
“It was at first strange cause I hardly actually even been in the studio before I met Mustard,” she tells ABC Radio, referring to producer DJ Mustard, who discovered her on Instagram. “So then to be thrown into a top-notch studio was strange, like I said. At first I was, like, what is going on? I had to pinch myself.”
The 23-year-old singer says she when she recorded with Mustard, she didn’t envision her music would achieve commercial success.
“Now I can look back and be like, ‘OK, wow, like, I get it,'” Ella says. “But at the time I was just like, we were just making music for the fun of it and ’cause we loved it.”
Mai recorded with Mustard in Los Angeles after moving there from New York. She remembers she was creating songs without regard to how they would be received by the public.
“We were just making music to make music,” she says. “Now, looking back, its amazing.”
With her third EP, Ready, reaching number eight on the Billboard Top R&B Albums chart, Mai says she wasn’t prepared for her success.
“I kinda got thrown into it and its gone so quickly and everything changed so quickly but I love I,” she says. Its what we love to do.”
Mai will perform at the BET Awards on June 24 in Los Angeles.
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