IS THIS THE HUMBLE BEGINNINGS OF A BREAKOUT STAR?

With more than 60,000 subscribers to her YouTube channel and over half a million views on her latest video, Ella Mai has already built herself a steady fan base. Her smooth R&B vocals mixed with her sultry sex appeal has helped her make waves on this side of the pond. The South West London native moved to New York at the age of 12. She returned to England shortly after graduating high school. There she appeared on the U.K version of the X-Factor as a member of the girl group Arize. The group didn't make it far, but right after she released her first solo EP on SoundCloud.

Going by ItsEllaMai on Instagram, Mai used the social media platform to post short twenty second covers. Things started to move pretty fast from there. On January 16, 2016 she was signed to label of one of hottest producer in the business, DJ Mustard. You've probably heard “Mustard on that beat h*e," more than once at the beginning of a track. Mustard has worked with a wide range of artists like; Britney Spears, YG, Drake, Chris Brown, Tinashe and Miley Cyrus. He's produced tracks like Big Sean's IDFWU, Omarion, Chris Brown and Jhene Aiko's collab track Post To Be and Rhianna's Needed Me.

After signing to Mustard's label 10 Summer's Records Mai released her first EP “Time". The first of her three part EP trilogy. The EP included the single, “She Don't" featuring Ty Dolla Sign. The music video got over five million views on YouTube. In November of that same year she dropped her second EP “Change." Which include one of her most popular songs “10,000 hours." Which was inspired by Malcolm Gladwell's book Outliers. “Obviously it takes 10,000 hours to master a certain craft." She went on further explaining, “I don't know why it came into my head, but I was thinking of mastering love."

Earlier this year [2017] she dropped her EP “Ready," the final EP to complete the trilogy. Including the tracks Boo'd up, Anymore and Breakfast in Bed. Currently Mai's opening for R&B/Pop artist Kehlani on her SweetSexySavage Tour. The next song you'll hear from her will be off her debut studio album.