00:00Let's welcome to the stage, our guest, boot up singer, Ella Mai.
00:23Hi, Ella.
00:24Hi, everyone.
00:26Yes.
00:27Woo.
00:28How are you?
00:29I'm great, thank you.
00:29How are you?
00:30Good, good.
00:31We caught your set yesterday.
00:33You performed at the Superdome.
00:35Was that your first time performing at Essence Fest?
00:37Yes.
00:37It's my first time here and my first time performing, so I'm super excited to be here.
00:41Wow.
00:41Okay.
00:42When did you arrive?
00:43Have you had a chance to actually check out the festival?
00:45I arrived on Friday quite late, actually, so I didn't get to see anything on Friday.
00:50I got to see a few things yesterday, but today I'm going to be around, so if you see me, make
00:56sure you say hi.
00:57Yes.
00:58And speaking of all of your accomplishments, especially with this song, you just released
01:05the remix with Nicki Minaj and Quavo.
01:07Give it up if you guys love the remix as much as we do.
01:12How did the remix come together?
01:13So I just did the BET Awards, I think about two weeks ago now, and that's where I met
01:19Migos.
01:20I didn't actually get to meet Nicki Minaj, but I'm signed to DJ Mustard and he has a very
01:25good relationship with her, so that's how it came about.
01:27And it was a really quick turnaround time.
01:29And I'm a huge Nicki Minaj fan, a huge Migos fan.
01:33So when I heard the verses, I was like, oh my God, we have to put this out.
01:35I've been a Nicki Minaj fan since I was a teenager, so I'm like, yes, let's do it.
01:39Are you a fan of any of the other celebrity remixes that have come out?
01:43T-Pain murdered it.
01:45T-Pain.
01:45That's a good one.
01:46That's a good one.
01:47Like, there's so many different ones.
01:48Ply's, all of them.
01:49Fab just put one out.
01:51There's been so many different ones and it's like hard to keep up because it's like a new
01:55one every day.
01:56But I think, yeah, T-Pain would probably be my favorite.
02:01And the song has been so successful.
02:03So when you were writing it, did you expect this kind of reaction?
02:06And like, how does it feel?
02:08Like, you're like, peaked on number six of Billboard Hot 100.
02:12Like, come on.
02:13It's been really crazy.
02:14I definitely didn't expect it at all.
02:17I'm just glad that everyone loves the song as much as I do.
02:20I mean, I wrote it in January.
02:23Well, it was, it's pretty old.
02:25We put it out in February 2017.
02:27So it's over, it's like a year and a half old now.
02:31So, and last year I was on tour with Kehlani and it wasn't even in my set because it was
02:37so new.
02:38And then as the tour went on, people were asking me like, why is boot up not in your
02:42set?
02:42Why is boot up not in your set?
02:43So then I changed it and put boot up in my set.
02:46And then this year it's just like taken off.
02:48Like you said, number six on Billboard.
02:50We were number one at Urban Radio, which is insane.
02:52Um, so it's just, I'm just so grateful that everyone loves it the way I do.
02:56Yeah.
02:56And you've spawned the boot up challenge, which is insane.
03:00How many people have participated in the boot up challenge?
03:03Let's hear you.
03:04So what has it been like seeing how fans have been really captivated by the song?
03:09Honestly, it's like, it's, it's so humbling.
03:12Um, and I'm just so grateful.
03:14It's, it's, I didn't expect men to love it the way men love it.
03:17I thought it was definitely going to be something for the women and men have taken it and like
03:21just ran with it.
03:22And like, we can't have it anymore.
03:24Men are like, it's ours.
03:25You need to find nice for what can be for the women and boot up can be for the guys.
03:28And I was like, I would have never expected that.
03:30Um, but I'm just so grateful, honestly, thank you guys so much.
03:36And you have, you, like I said, you performed at Essence Fest, but now you're soon going
03:40to be kicking off your tour.
03:42Are you excited?
03:43Like what cities are you looking forward to stopping in?
03:46Sorry.
03:47Um, I love tour.
03:48It's my favorite aspect of this whole thing.
03:50Oh, just performing in general is my favorite aspect of this whole thing.
03:53I feel like it being on stage and seeing people sing back to me and just going to different
03:58cities and the different atmosphere, the different energy and seeing different culture, um, is
04:02really amazing.
04:03So I start off in Dallas on August 6th.
04:05Um, yeah.
04:07Anyone from Dallas?
04:10And I end in Seattle on August 26th.
04:13So we're going from the South, working our way up to the East and coming down and across
04:17to end on the West ish.
04:19Sorry.
04:20My geography is bad.
04:22Mine too, girl.
04:24Um, but I'm super excited, um, about New York, especially.
04:27I used to live in New York, so that's like home to me.
04:30Shout out to all the New Yorkers in this audience.
04:32Where y'all at?
04:33And I'm also really excited for Atlanta because we sold Atlanta out first.
04:37Okay.
04:37The A is here.
04:38It's the biggest venue that we're doing and we sold it out, um, in almost an hour.
04:43So like, yeah, I'm super excited for Atlanta.
04:45That's very exciting.
04:47One last question for you.
04:48Three songs that every Ella Mae song should listen to that's in your catalog.
04:52Go.
04:53Ooh.
04:53Um, naked.
04:5710,000 hours.
05:01Boot up.
05:04Well, thank you so much, Ella.
05:07So much.
05:07This is great.
