Ella Mai

“'Naked' embodies what everyone, at the end of the day, really wants and how they should feel.”

“'The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill' happens to be my favorite album.”

“It's been cool to have my name mentioned when people say R&B is on the comeback and I'm the leading person. If you had told me at 16 that I would be that person - you're lying.”

“With social media especially, there's a lot of image issues that everyone faces because there's so much pressure on us.”

“I played soccer for nine years, so I took that route instead of singing. I played on the outside team as well as in school, so I was always playing soccer. It wasn't until I moved back to London that I really, like, started investing in music again and realized, OK, yeah, this is definitely what I want to do.”

“The word 'album' makes you nervous, especially 'debut album.'”

“It's deeper than the music when it comes to me and Mustard. He's like a big brother, and I'm so thankful to have a mentor like him to advise me. Even though he gives me a lot of creative control, I always go to him like, 'Do you like this?' It's so cool that it's always a collaborative effort. He never makes me feel pressured or anything.”

“I love to color.”

“I think originality is something that's important and catches people's eye.”

“I feel like everyone has been in a bitter situation, regardless whether it's cheating or just not being over someone who is over you - you compare yourself to the next.”

“Mustard believes in me so much. It's good to have a mentor that's been through it. Even though he's a producer, he's been a new artist.”

“Not everybody gets to wake up and do what they love.”

“People make careers off of Instagram. So in that sense, it's really good, and you can put yourself out there and be open.”

“I think it's harder for R&B to break in England because the radio and labels don't really know what to do with R&B music.”

“I'm very big on feeling.”

“A lot of the times, if relationships go badly, you concentrate on the negative. But in those situations, there is always a positive outcome that you can learn from. So, I like to concentrate on the lesson and how I can learn from this. I concentrate on me rather than concentrating on the actual situation.”

“I write in a diary every night to collect my thoughts. It's very therapeutic to songwrite, because it's the same thing.”

“I wanted to show people that I don't just make love songs that are about purely being in love.”

“A lot of 'Time' was actually about a friend's relationship and me seeing what she went through and how she felt.”

“It's okay to wake up and look however you look. You are beautiful regardless.”