MAHALIA RETURNS WITH NEW SINGLE ‘LETTER TO UR EX’
GRAMMY-nominated R&B star Mahalia has returned with her brand new single, ‘Letter To Ur Ex’ – available now.
Following on from previous releases ‘Whenever You’re Ready’ and ‘Roadside’ – of which the latter featured global rap sensation, AJ Tracey – ‘Letter To Ur Ex’ offers a more retrospective side of Mahalia, fusing her knowledge and experience with maturation. Exploring, understanding and accepting every part of herself, Mahalia has taken her growth and merged it with her foundations; she has twisted her bases.
“I wrote ‘Letter to ur ex’ the morning after me and my guy had had a really bad argument due to a text that had been sent by his ex partner the night before. I think when everybody begins a new relationship, it’s vital that it feels like a fresh start. Like everything before doesn’t really matter and the next journey begins now with only the two of you. I realized through this experience that isn’t always the case. But, really, I just wanted to tell her how her actions were making me feel. How her gain in closure was my loss in love. And though I am also a woman who has felt all of those feelings before, I wanted to ask her to let him go so that I could hold him close. To close their old door so that I could open our new one.” – Mahalia states of the track.
Co-directed and shot by Mahalia and British Director Oliver Kane, the luminous accompanying video sees Mahalia back to back with her partner in the bedroom, acting out her thoughts. Laying her heart on the line, she makes her position clear as she sings; ‘Last night, you sent a text to him. Made us have a fight, made a mess of it. I know you’re his ex but you can’t do that anymore, close the door for me.”
The last two years have marked many achievements for the Leicester-born star. Beginning 2020 with her second BRIT nomination, Mahalia featured on up-and-coming fellow Midlands rapper Pa Salieu’s debut mixtape, ‘Send Them To Coventry’, whilst also gracing the tracklist of Headie One’s #1 album ‘Edna’. Subsequently, Mahalia also received a GRAMMY nomination for ‘All I Need’ – Jacob Collier’s single of which she features alongside US rapper, Ty Dolla $ign. Shortly after, Mahalia concluded the year with three MOBO nominations for ‘Best Female Act’, ‘Best R&B/Soul Act’ and ‘Album Of The Year’ for her debut album, ‘Love and Compromise’, winning in the first two categories. In 2021, Mahalia was also nominated for her first ever Ivor Novello award for her 2020 collaboration with UK lyricist Pa Salieu for his single ‘Energy’ and subsequently concluded the year with an incredible headline show at London’s prestigious venue, O2 Brixton Academy.
Besides the awards and nominations, it’s also been a time of deep personal growth, one that Mahalia describes as a real rollercoaster in her personal and professional life. Reflection has been the thread running through Mahalia’s writing and while the current global situation offers little more than uncertainty, the singer hopes that her music will encourage her listeners to carve out time to also look back and re-evaluate: “We’re all fixated on how we can make ourselves better during and after this period of time but I want people to also reminisce on lovely or painful situations they’ve lived through and how they’ve helped shape the people they are now.”
