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Jonathan MannionElla Mai is up for two American Music Awards next week, and she says her dream collaboration would be with one of the artists she’s competing against in the Favorite Soul/R&B Song category.
Her breakout hit “Boo’d Up” is up against “Finesse” by Bruno Mars and Cardi B, and “Young, Dumb & Broke” by the man she’d love to record with: Khalid.
“I would love to collab with Khalid,” Mai tells The Recording Academy in a video interview. “Khalid is one of the first people I met when I first moved to L.A. and I think he just moved from L.A. from El Paso as well, and this was when ‘Location’ was just popping off.”
The two artists became friends, and the British star says, “It’s been great to see his journey, and how successful he’s been in the last year, and he’s remained the same person.”
Speaking about Khalid’s appearance in her video for “Boo’d Up,” Ella Mae says “[It’s] a fun song so I definitely wanted to have my friend in the video as well. He’d just come off a flight and I was like, ‘Can you come?,’ and he came and he was super-tired, but he did it.”
“I actually spoke to him the other day and he just was saying how proud he is of me,” she adds. “So definitely a collaboration in the future, hopefully.”
Mai will release her self-titled debut album on October 12. Now she is preparing to open ten shows on the Bruno Mars 24K Magic Tour, beginning with his October 4 concert in New York City.
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