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Rising R&B singer Ella Mai performed her Nineties throwback cut “Trip” on The Tonight Show Wednesday. The song appears on Mai’s self-titled debut album.
The performance found Mai and her live band injecting a fresh urgency into the slick R&B groove of “Trip.” Mai deftly handled the song’s myriad vocal runs as she belted her earnest lyrics about the ups and downs of a romantic relationship, “Boy, you know we’re cool, and now you’re waiting/ But I act a fool when I don’t get it/ And I’m steady bruising just to save this/ But I tripped on your love, now I’m addicted.”
Mai released her self-titled album earlier this month. The record contains the 23-year-old singer’s breakout track, “Boo’d Up,” which topped the R&B charts and peaked at Number Five on the Billboard Hot 100.
In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Mai spoke about finding pop success with such a distinct R&B sound, “I think sometimes that happens with R&B music. It has to get digested properly. Even now, it’s surprising for a new artist with a purely R&B song that has no huge feature.”
