Ella Mai, grinning like a Cheshire cat, says “2018 was a very big year for me. There was one song that changed my life. I even got a plaque.” At just 24, the Wimbledon Chase singer has already achieved something that has eluded many British pop legends: a bona fide US smash. Her song, Boo’d Up, reached the US Top 5 last summer and was the first UK artist single to top the American R&B charts since Lisa Stansfield’s All Woman in 1992. Perhaps not uncoincidentally, Boo’d Up is slinky, throwback R&B, its dreamy, nostalgic flavour – and Mai’s girl-next-door vibe – reminiscent of an era when R&B songs weren’t about sex, but romance and dating. Its Stateside appeal – bolstered by solid touring – has been helped by her transatlantic, almost-American accent (she lived in New York during her teens) and the avoidance of potentially confusing British reference points.
That US-facing stance is perhaps why she’s yet to reach the UK singles Top 40, although this sold-out gig suggests this can’t be far away. She is greeted by screaming women, a sea of filming phones and an audience that spend half the night as impromptu backing vocalists. They know all the words and – with the universal subjects ranging from love rivals to waking up in a grumpy mood – can relate to them. Most of the tunes obey pop’s golden rule: “Don’t bore us, get to the chorus.”
The object of the roared approval and mass singalongs isn’t short on live charisma, a mix of hair ribbons and tattoos, wagging fingers and a fetching swagger which feminises Stone Roses singer Ian Brown’s Mancunian Ali shuffle. Mai has worked for her success, with music college and an X Factor flop (with short-lived trio Arize) before she’d left her teens. As she points out, “only three and a half years ago I was singing covers on Instagram”. That led to signing to US hip-hop mogul DJ Mustard’s label 10 Summers, and a debut album with guests including John Legend, Chris Brown and HER. Album cuts Sauce and Dangerous are big-lunged, electronic R&B, sprinkled with verve and nimble chatter reminiscent of Missy Elliott.
Her first headline show in Manchester isn’t without flaws, though. The backing band sound tinny for a while, an interlude after just seven songs temporarily kills the momentum, and her liking for supposedly impromptu a cappella song reprises suggests she’s milking a less than substantial repertoire. Whatchamacallit is performed without Chris Brown and goes down a storm, but a song about the thrill of cheating (“It’s something ’bout wrong that feels so right”) recorded with a man with a domestic violence conviction jars with her cheery vibe and other songs where she’s the one betrayed or wounded.
Still, at her best she’s a refreshing, sparky talent who lights up a room. Boo’d Up is met by such roars you wonder how on earth she’ll follow it, a question which hovered over her career. “A lot of people were calling me a one-hit wonder,” she scolds, before pointedly closing the show with the euphoric sunshine soul-meets-R&B track Trip – her second US smash.
• At Shepherd’s Bush Empire, London, tonight and tomorrow, both dates sold out
