The singer-songwriter released her third studio album 'Do You Still Love Me?' in February
NEED TO KNOW
- Ella Mai says her third album Do You Still Love Me? reflects honesty and vulnerability inspired by ’90s and 2000s R&B
- The “Trip” singer is nominated for two 2026 BET Awards, marking a full-circle moment after winning her first BET Award early in her career
- Mai describes the album’s yellow-themed cover as symbolizing warmth and energy, reflecting her personal and creative growth
Ella Mai is living life in yellow.
When the British R&B star set out to create her third studio album Do You Still Love Me?, she released any pressures to treat songwriting like a "math equation" and recreate hit songs like "Boo'd Up" and "Trip" — and instead wrote from a place that felt true to her journey.
"I feel like honesty and vulnerability were the leading force in this album," Mai, 31, tells PEOPLE exclusively. "I dug a little bit deeper."
Credit: Breyona Holt
"Once we were finished with the music and I was listening back to things, I was like, 'Oh, do I want to put that out?' Because we give so much of ourselves already as artists, it definitely can be a daunting feeling," she continues. "But then, I remember all the music that I grew up listening to and all the '90s and the 2000s R&B, where I feel like all of the artists wore their heart on their sleeve and gave you raw emotion."
Growing up, Mai had The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill on repeat in the car and she recalls how connected she felt to Hill's "rawness and vulnerability." On her third studio album, she wouldn't settle for anything less.
Credit: Jordan Perez
"That made me feel confident because I was just like, 'I can do this without getting in my head and over complicating things.' So trusting myself and trusting the process, and still having fun with it, even if it didn't necessarily go as planned," she says. "I'm a type A personality, definitely. So, it's really hard for me to steer off track if it's not under my control, but I'm also trying to learn how to let that go too."
Mai's efforts paid off. At the 2026 BET Awards, she's nominated for Best Female R&B/Pop Artist and Video of the Year for "100." This recognition feels full-circle for Mai as a BET Award is the first award she won in her career.
"It kind of brings back those feelings of very early in my career and my first recognition. I'm always just so grateful and honored to be celebrated by my people," she says, adding that now is an "incredible time for female R&B."
"I think that all of us women in that category are a testament to the fact that it is not dead, it's very much alive, and it can be mainstream again," Mai, who's nominated alongside Ari Lennox, Coco Jones, Jill Scott, Kehlani, Mariah the Scientist, Olivia Dean, SZA and Tems, says.
After the "Little Things" singer won her first BET, she went on to win the Best R&B Song Grammy for "Boo'd Up" — which was on her debut album — in 2019. Nearly eight years later, Mai is approaching life a bit differently.
Credit: Breyona Holt
"So much happened for me really early in my career, that as it was happening, sometimes I didn't even realize the magnitude of what was actually happening. I think about the list as a little girl that I had of my hopes and my dreams, I feel like I've ticked off basically all of them," she recalls.
"I'd started to realize, and especially now stepping into my 30s and stepping into motherhood, I feel like I really just find success in being happy," she continues. "So my list changed from: I want to win a Grammy and I want to win a BET award and I want to win a Billboard Award… Nowadays, it's more so like, 'Am I enjoying what I'm doing? Am I proud of what I'm putting out? Do I feel like the message that I'm sending is something that I can look back on in 10 years and still be proud of?' I think it intertwines more so with me now, as a person."
In the making of Do You Still Love Me?, Mai settled into her happiness and humanity — which is why the cover art featured yellow hues.
Credit: Breyona Holt
"I feel like it's been easier for me to describe things in colors lately," she says. "So when I was thinking about my album, my manager, my creative director asked me, 'What color does this feel like to you?' And I said yellow."
"It reminds me of energy and the sun and warmth, but I feel like it's also powerful enough that it doesn't feel super, super muted," she says. "The color yellow describe the point in my life and in my career. And like I was saying to you earlier, I was always a very black and white person, and I'm understanding that a lot of stuff lives in the gray area in life."
The "Naked" singer concludes, "I advise everybody to find the color yellow and everything that they do."
See the dates for Mai's upcoming North American tour here and stream Do You Still Love Me? here.
The 2026 BET Awards will air live on Sunday, June 28, 2026 on BET.
Read the full article here
