Despite receiving Grammy nominations and Billboard chart positions, Leicester-born Mahalia will never forget where she came from.
The 26-year-old singer-songwriter has been working towards her current success since she was in school, telling Hypebeast that her mum would wake her up at five in the morning to take her from London studio sessions to books and studies in Birmingham.
Growing up with a Black Jamaican mother and white British father, Mahalia’s family life was different from many of her childhood peers; she was encouraged to express her thoughts and frustrations, which in turn led to a plethora of emotional music, destined to stand the test of time.
Mahalia’s early emotional maturity eventually led to her 2019 debut studio album, ‘Love and Compromise’, with the 13-tracker solidifying her as one of the UK’s most promising R&B talents. The album articulated several moments of heartbreak, friendship struggles, and battles with mental health, with tracks like “I Wish I Missed My Ex” materializing into relatable anthems that rang around venues nationwide.
Almost four years passed before Mahalia’s second album was released – following a slew of intimate EP releases – reflecting her need to share more of her true, unrushed self with her listeners. This album resulted in even more accolades from fans and critics alike – but Mahalia has continued to keep her private life as her main priority.
“I really care about my personal life,” Mahalia tells Hypebeast. “There are some artists that I meet that are so focused on their work. Naturally, I’ve always had one foot in and the other foot in being Mahalia, at home.”
Now, after worldwide tours, BRIT nominations, and a walk at Copenhagen Fashion Week under her belt, Mahalia has turned her attention to her latest single release. Working in collaboration with Take A Day Trip, the single, titled ‘Life Size’, has been curated as part of Sprite’s Limelight campaign, with the garage-inspired, R&B jam painting a picture of Mahalia’s struggles with society’s beauty standards.
“The song is about me and also to say to the industry and to all the geezers that either commented on my body or told me I should lose weight – it’s a song to shut them up.”
With the single now out on all streaming platforms, Hypebeast spoke with Mahalia about her career thus far, navigating the music industry and battling with beauty standards.
Hey Mahalia! How are you?
I’m alright! At the moment, I’m just getting along. Being present is a major thing for me and it has been for this whole first part of the day. I’m someone who can easily fall into normal, young, early 20s waves of stillness and a bit of sadness at times, so it’s important for my mental health to just think about every single day as it comes. When I’m like that, I’m alright most of the time, so I feel quite good, just figuring out what it means to be a 26-year-old.
How do you manage to keep the balance of being a 26-year-old still trying to figure things out while also being a musician who is always on the move?
As I’ve gotten a bit older, I have started to give myself a lot more space. When I was younger, I was really particularly bad at doing that and telling people that I wasn’t feeling okay – I wasn’t good at saying no to things. Now, I’m actually really good at that, I think that comes with being more aware of yourself.
My therapist has been the best thing and the best person for me. I think some people can go through therapy and enjoy it for different reasons, but I just feel really lucky that I met someone who I genuinely want to share with. So, my therapist is a huge part of it and I talk about it a lot. I say to a lot of people that they need to get into some therapy, it can be as expensive or as cheap as you want it to be. There are so many levels to it and I think a lot of people make excuses for why they shouldn’t do it.
For me, it’s been the best thing I’ve ever done. It’s allowed me to realize that it’s okay to feel anxious sometimes or if I can’t make a session because I’m not having a great day. It allows me to move through life with a clear mindset.
“I want to tell everyone about my life. If there’s someone over here who has done this mad thing to me, I want people to hear it so they feel connected to it – I love connections.”
Being put in the public eye at a really young age is an unorthodox way to grow up. How did you manage to navigate the music industry while growing up?
If I’m being honest, my parents were probably the main help for me. When I was growing up, my parents were around for all of the early stages. Up until I was 18, my mum was around the whole time, so the really cool thing is that the moments in London where I would be there for a week, I would drive back to Leicester or to Birmingham for school, and my mum would wake me up at five in the morning to take me to school. We would have these moments together where yes, I may have spent five days in the studio with a big record producer, but we would be in the car and she would be asking me about a boy that I fancied in my drama class.
I think she really kept it and kept me understanding that yes, I had this really important thing over here and a new responsibility, but I was also a kid in school and there were other things that were important to me at that time. She really nurtured that for me.
When I went past that, my mum gave me the tools to be able to do that. Even now, sometimes I have things with my fella where we have a little argument, but I love it when the two worlds massively collide. We are all real, normal people who have stuff going on, and we need to get things going on in both sides of life.
I really care about my personal life. There are some artists that I meet that are so focused on their work. Only focused on music and the scene around it. Me, naturally, I’ve always had one foot in and the other foot in being Mahalia, at home. There was a time when I thought I was going to be an artist and live in Leicester and have my kids and partner and be there. I don’t think that’s impossible – I’ve just really loved both sides.
How important is it for you to be able to pour your heart and soul into your music?
I’ll be perfectly honest, I don’t know. It’s probably similar to my last answer, I think I’ve always been like that and I think it comes from my family. I have three brothers and I come from a mixed family, my mum is Black Jamaican and my dad is white British and I think culturally, for us as kids, everyone was talking, and everyone had an opinion. Our dinner table evenings would be about everything; politics, things in school, there was always something going on.
I think because we lived in a setting where we were always talking, always arguing, and always disputing each other, it made me naturally want to be able to do that with people outside of the home. Separate from music, I’m definitely the girl in the club toilet, doing my lip gloss and entering a conversation with another girl for 15 minutes. If there’s a stereotypical girl, I am that. Because of that, I don’t think it’s weird that’s happened in my music, I want to tell everyone about my life. If there’s someone over here who has done this mad thing to me, I want people to hear it so they feel connected to it – I love connections.
Talk to us about the new single, ‘Life Size.’
The really nice thing about the single is that I wasn’t sitting on it for too long. Sometimes, you sit on a tune for so long that you don’t love it anymore. Luckily, this campaign came up with Sprite a few months ago and I went into it quite quickly. The link-up is between me and Take A Day Trip. I think I was in America on tour when they sent me the stem idea, which was some lyrics, melodies, and chords and I spent about three weeks listening to it and deciding what I wanted the song to be about.
The whole kind of focus with the song was to focus on something that has been difficult for you and how you overcame it. There’s been a few things that I’ve struggled with, but the main thing that has been heavy on my chest – that I don’t often talk about – is my relationship with industry beauty standards. I’ve never spoken about it because I don’t know how to put it into words musically. I would know how to put it into words in an Instagram caption, but being able to formulate that into a piece of music, I find really tough.
Maybe because it was quite deep for me. I have said I overshare, yes, but there are certain topics that cut a little bit too much. So, this tune is all about how I felt being in the music industry and being in a time when beauty standards were constantly changing. I went through a phase when I was younger where I never really felt that beautiful. I grew up in Leicester, which is very multicultural and diverse, yes, but the part that I grew up in, I think there was one other mixed girl in my year, so looking around and trying to see myself in other girls as a kid was difficult.
Then, coming into the music industry, I just never saw anyone that looked like me. The only person that I had was Corrine Bailey Rae, and she was from Leeds, so she was kinda cooler because she was more northern [laughs]. So, the song is about that, it’s about me now and also about having a moment to say to the industry and to all the geezers who either commented on my body or told me I should lose weight, or change things about my face – it’s a song to shut them up.
“We lived in a setting where we were always talking, always arguing, and always disputing each other, it made me naturally want to be able to do that with people outside of the home.”
How did you find relocating from Leicester to London?
I found it really tough at first. When I was 18, I didn’t have a clue how I was going to do it. I think people in London, there’s a different agenda, not many people are trying to speak to you or be lovely. When I was coming through, nobody cared about the fact that I was a regional kid, it wasn’t cool, it wasn’t a thing. I remember when Aitch started to do well, it was so cool to hear a lad rap in his normal accent. But yeah, I didn’t feel like I fit in or like a cool kid. I still don’t feel that cool now – whenever people call me cool, I’m like, really?
I just think I’m always trying to be fun and myself and sometimes that doesn’t seem cool. Also, I’m a hugger, which not many people in London are. So, for the most part, I found it really cold at first. Obviously, that starts to change when people know who you are, but coming into London as an unknown was excruciatingly painful.
How do you decide what to wear day-to-day?
More recently, I have actually been planning what I’m going to wear. One of my now-great friends and my stylist has really got me into that. She has started to make me think about what I’m wearing, which is great. I can actually say this confidently now, I actually think that my sense of style is quite good. But most days, I’m going to the gym and the studio, so I’m just dressing comfortably. But, my wardrobe is full of color, I have way too many pairs of trainers – I must have around 300 pairs of trainers in my corridor – and way too many bags. But, I just come in, look, and dress according to the weather. But, no matter what I’m wearing, you better know that I’m going to look fantastic while doing it. So, I do care about it, but I feel like I care about it more than I did before – I don’t know why, maybe I’ve just discovered a new interest.
You’re also super tapped in with the UK streetwear scene. Who are your favorites?
I mean, Manchester’s Drama Call… Charlie [Bows] and the team have been my boys for a while now. I met them during the end of COVID and he brought me a Drama T-shirt, and since then, every time they’ve had a new drop, they’ve sent me some bits. So, they’re probably one of my favorites. I think they’re a very cool, lovely streetwear brand. One of my other favorites right now is by a guy called Ernie, he’s got a brand called Teef Machine, and I really like that. I have definitely enjoyed wearing the brand-new, on-the-rise streetwear brands since I was younger. When I was growing up, everyone used to make garms. When I was like 11 or 12, we would be wearing someone’s tee or hoodie. I also cut up a lot of my clothes. I might turn a T-shirt into a skirt. I love fashion, it’s taken me a minute to fall back in love with it though. I think that links back to body stuff… feeling comfortable in my body and therefore feeling more confident in trying something new in fashion.
