Ella Mai
Cambridge Room at the House of Blues
Dallas, TX
August 6th, 2018
Words and Photos by Stefanie Dabs
If you ever want to experience a magical night of music go and see Ella Mai live. Ella is a singer/songwriter who is signed to DJ Mustard’s label 10 Summers Records and is the first UK star to top the US R&B singles charts since 1992, with her single “Boo’d Up.” She grew up in south-west London for a majority of her life and her love of music stemmed from her mum playing Mary J Blige, Lauren Hill, and old jazz records— sounds that are definitely reflected when you listen to her music or see her live. Mai has been at it the past few years and found her audience on Instagram while just being herself—the girl next door — belting out soulful takes of Kanye West and Drake hits.
Monday, August 6th, at the Cambridge Room in the House of Blues in Dallas, TX, was the kick off to a sold out tour— her first headlining tour. She sang songs off of her EPs Time, Change, and Ready — audience members sang along to each and every song with smiles on their faces and Ella was so in awe of this. The energy in the room was so infectious that if you were having a bad day her soulful crooning with the help of her backing band was melting all of your outside worries away.
After singing “Boo’d Up” once Mai decided to do another rendition of it a little different. The second time she had a couple in the audience come up on the stage to sing it to each other — and also lent them some of her vocal talent here or there to keep things going. I loved that she did this and so did the entire crowd— cracking up at some of the antics of the male guest on stage at times, especially with his dance moves and how he was signing the song. She is someone that I would definitely want to see live again and I can see her selling out bigger and bigger venues the next few months with all of her success.
Although her tour is sold out, I would definitely recommend to listen to her music on your favorite streaming service if you haven’t already, to follow her on socials, and to also subscribe to her mailing list so you can get all of the latest info.
