There’s one type of music Ella Mai can’t resist singing: love songs. And it’s not a wonder since she’s got a voice filled with mesmerizing tenderness that can put anyone under a spell.
Valentine’s day mood: Ella Mai – “This Is.”
Granted that this is not one of those love songs that the talented songwriter penned by herself, she still brought something special to the song by the way of its pre-chorus and through her interesting harmonies. “This Is” starts with a soft piano melody before Mai’s voice comes in singing, “Just wanna love you for my whole life / Do it for ya, I’ma make time / I wanna kick it until midnight / Just to be with you till the sunrise.”
Continuing on by describing how love can make anyone do crazy things, the Grammy Award winner sings, “I think you’re making me crazy / Put my heart upon the main line, I Got this trust for you / Got it ’cause I know what you like (I love ya).”
When it comes to singing about love and capturing the messiness, complication and reality of that one emotion, not many can handle it as beautifully as Mai does. Coming in at the pre-chorus with lines that would remind anyone of traditional wedding vows, she continues, “Good and bad, thick and thin, flaws and all / And if ya ever in the wrong, I’ll let you know / Yeah, I know that love is unpredictable / But I’m pretty damn sure that…”
The chorus then tells us she believes she’s found the love “that keeps me up all night” and the kind of love she can “do for the rest of my life.”
Perhaps the reason Ella Mai can sing about love as naturally as she does is because she’s a firm believer in it. “’This is’ is a really fun, lovey song, and obviously one of my favorite things to sing about is love. The song was actually written already, so I just added a pre-chorus to kind of make it my own, but it was a really quiet studio session,” Mai said about the creative process for the song in an interview with Complex. “It was a song that Mustard loved and wanted me to be a part of, and I felt the same way about it. It’s a really feel-good song and everyone loves it, so I’m excited about it.”
The single is one of two songs – the other is “2 O’clock” – that’s on the deluxe version of her second studio album “Heart On My Sleeve”.
