U.K. Singer Mahalia Is Newly 21, Happily In Love, And Still The 'Bad Bitch' You Know

A week before Mahalia's 21st birthday, she hadn't however determined how to celebrate. She could be in Cincinnati that day, she explained to MTV News over the phone, for a stop on Ella Mai's headlining tour. She was "really, really, really excited" for the month-long U.S. Trek to get underway, and that was presently taking priority over her big day — which perhaps makes sense any time whenever you imagine turning 21 is a bigger deal For Americans than for a U.K. Native like herself.


Birthday non-plans aside, Mahalia's new year is shaping up to be her busiest and buzziest although — and maybe her happiest as well. In her music, she often vents about heartbreak and shattered relationships; take her 2017 breakout hit "Sober" or the bitingly sarcastic "I Wish I Missed My Ex." However her most recent single, "Grateful," shows off another side: one that's sweet, sensual, elatedly in love, and wholly reflective of her life at the moment (to drive the point residence, she recently got the word "grateful" tattooed on her arm).


"I spent a long time writing about the people who hurt me; I guess because I find it easy to draw inspiration from pain," she explained. However with ["Grateful"], I am in a situation where I met somebody and — for the initial time in ages — I was like, oh my god, I'd like to write about how much you make me feel good. I just wanted people to be able to see that side of me, and also because the 'independent woman, bad bitch, no-one-can-fucking-hurt-me' side."


That side of Mahalia is what you hear on her other released single of 2019, the defiant "Do Not Disturb," which finds her reflecting on a relationship that likely ended in a blocked number, and vowing not to give her ex the satisfaction of reaching her again. In it, she sings, "I'm putting myself on don't disturb," intentionally choosing "myself" as an alternative opposed to "my phone."


"The phone thing isn't timeless; saying 'I'm putting my phone on silent' in 10 years may not be relevant anymore," she mentioned. "For me, I was just like, it should be about me saying, you never get to contact me, you do not get to be in my life anymore. I'd like to take time for myself, basically. I think that was a really key message to convey and for people to sing."


That's certainly proven to be true — any time while she performs the song live, she sees fans screaming the lyrics and also her. It's still "surprising" to her that folks are relating to it in such a fervid way, nevertheless perhaps it shouldn't be. Between "Do Not Disturb" and "Don't Call Me Up," a song from her R&B peer Mabel that was also released this year — not to say, Dua Lipa's viral smash "New Rules" — a growing collection of ladies in pop are asserting their will to hang up on exes and move on fabulously.


"It's so universal, right? I used to love screaming, 'One, don't pick up the phone / You know he's only calling cause he's drunk.' I used to fucking love singing that in the vehicle because it's like, we can all relate to that," Mahalia mentioned. "I remember once Mabel's 'Don't Call Me Up' dropped just before 'Do Not Disturb,' I was like, this is so funny and we are literally all on the exact same wave.


"And I think there's certainly a thing with ladies going, 'No, I'm not just at your disposal,'" she continued. "My whole thing is, I have young females looking at me going, 'How do I go through life and be cool?' And I think for me, it's just talking about the correct message. How do we get young females to grow up in a global where they are inspired to feel strong? And it's fully not about hating gentlemen. It's just about saying, 'I need to be in control of my life and myself.'"


Control is something Mahalia has a lot of those days, and she's spent years working for it. The Leicester, England, native signed a deal with Atlantic Records any time once she was just 13, and she's since released one full-length and three EPs, including 2018's critically adored Seasons. She's become a magnetic performer who's toured alongside Ed Sheeran and Mai, and this summer, she's booked more than a dozen festival dates across the U.S. And Europe. It's all leading up to her as-yet-untitled debut album, which she says will come around the "end of summer."


"For me, it was such a slow and steady climb and build," she mentioned of the journey toward her new release. "It had been seven years being signed and working in the music industry, and I just thought, I can't spend all this time working towards this and, right now that things are taking off, rush an album in six months.


"As I've got older, I realized that a lot of the time I was putting pressure on myself more than anybody," she continued. "Even right now, finishing this album, it's like, fuck... I think I'm just putting pressure on myself to prepare the ideal record that I can."


Still, as tracks like "Grateful" prove, Mahalia is finally letting herself exhale. Twenty-one is going to be a good year for her.