Ella Mai has become the first British artist to hit No 1 on the US R&B chart in 26 years. The 23-year-old’s single Boo’d Up, initially released in 2017, knocked Drake’s Don’t Matter to Me off the top spot.

She tweeted: “1992, before I was born. First in my lifetime. INSANE.” British artists including Charli XCX, Kyla and Paul McCartney have featured on US R&B No 1 singles, but none were billed as lead artist. Boo’d Up is also at No 5 on the general Billboard Hot 100 singles countdown.

The American success of Boo’d Up is in stark contrast to its fortunes in the UK, where it sits at No 62 in the Top 40 charts. The song is on BBC Radio 1’s C list, meaning it is played around eight times a week on daytime programming, and on the A list at BBC Radio 1Xtra, receiving up to 25 plays per week. The song and a remix have combined streams of 6.3m according to Official Charts Company data.

“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,” Mai told the website Vulture. “It’s changing because it’s changing in America, but that doesn’t mean there’s nobody doing it, especially young females bringing it back.”



Boo’d Up is taken from Mai’s six-song EP Ready, her third for 10 Summers, the record label run by DJ Mustard. The influential producer signed Mai in 2015 after hearing her sing 15-second covers on Instagram. In 2014 Mai auditioned for The X Factor judges as part of trio Arize, but they didn’t proceed to the second round.



Mai released Ready in February 2017 and Boo’d Up as a standalone single in April 2017. Its slow build is characteristic of the way songs tend to mature into hits in a streaming-dominated industry, rather than peaking high and then dropping.

She has credited the song’s US success to influential San Francisco DJ Big Von, who played it in clubs and on his local station, KMEL, early last summer. It then received support from artists including Rihanna. In July 2018, Quavo, of Atlanta rap trio Migos, and Nicki Minaj remixed the track, boosting its profile again.

