All of Berlin’s R&B lovers are collectively united in one building tonight. Huxleys Neue Welt welcomes 31-year-old singer Ella Mai to its stage for this Friday evening. The UK hitmaker is here to perform songs from her latest release Do You Still Love Me? and, of course, her greatest hits throughout her career. The stage is decorated to mimic the album cover of her latest project. One lounge chair, a tiny table with a phone on it and a fence filled with plants are setting the scene.
The show opens with one of our favorites from the latest record. ‘There Goes My Heart’ already proved to be a perfect opener on the album, so it only makes sense that it takes on the same role for the tour. The almost haunting production is the kind of interlude that right off the bat has us wanting more and curious about what’s to come. Following up is the perfect love song ‘100’. Ella reminds us that within a relationship, it’s completely fine to not always be on a fifty-fifty. Sometimes your partner might only feel like a twenty, so you step up to an eighty. Together, you make it a hundred.
As she is a traditional R&B artist, some of her music naturally tends to have similar vibes. During the show, it feels like she knows exactly who she is. The few up-tempo songs she has are perfectly placed in the setlist to pick up the energy in between her slower songs. One of the standout moments of the night is ‘One Of These’. For the banger, her two backing singers get on stage and together they form some sort of unbelievably talented R&B band. Their energy and chemistry are off the roof. They almost have you wishing they would actually form a band and get in the studio together.
It’s time for her debut album to have a little moment. ‘Shot Clock’ in this live setting almost feels like a rock song. The guitar-heavy rendition boosts Ella’s confidence as she sings her heart out. The rockstar energy quickly fades away as she exchanges it for the most intimate moment of the night. It’s time to strip things down and take it all the way back to 2017 for an acoustic version of ‘Naked’. On top of a high chair with the spotlight shining on her, she has the whole crowd singing along to each word of the singer-songwriter’s hit. Surprisingly enough, it’s during this intimate moment that the crowd is at its loudest.
Ella’s biggest hits are hidden at the back of the setlist. Her Grammy-winning smash hit ‘Boo’d Up’ sounds fresh as if it was released yesterday. Hearing her sing it live proves how insanely timeless the song is. It was so ahead of its time that it stands the test of time. Eight years later and it still hits hard. It won’t come as a surprise that ‘Trip’, the other hit with the same ingredients, has the same trick up its sleeve. We love seeing the singer in her element. Dressed in a beautiful beige piece and bare makeup, truly looking like a natural beauty. No heavy choreography. Just her incredible voice and good, traditional music is all that’s needed.
We can’t believe we finally get to hear one of our favorite songs released in the past few years live. ‘Little Things’ first appeared on her EP 3 and, thanks to its success, made it to the Do You Still Love Me? album as well. It somehow ended up kind of serving as the lead single of it, without any intention. It really is an R&B love song at its very best. It’s simple, relatable and the melody is insane. What a way to close the show.