Mai Anna – Baby Blue EP
For Queens-born, Los Angeles-based R&B singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Mai Anna, part of the beauty of a song is its ability to change shape, evolving through time, performance, language and new perspective. She explores this idea on Baby Blue EP, a five-track collection bringing together “Chameleon” “Baby Blue,” and “Sugar High” with two new reimaginings: “Baby Blue (Acoustic)” and “Sugar High (シュガーハイ).”
Together, the songs offer a deeper introduction to Mai Anna and a prelude to her forthcoming debut LP, Sleepy Eyes, via Epic Records / Not So Fast.
The two reimaginings move in opposite directions: one back to the moment a song first took shape, the other toward something entirely new. “Baby Blue (Acoustic)” is built around the first rendition Mai Anna and longtime collaborator Solomon Fox created together after arriving in Los Angeles, bringing the bittersweet mix of relief, joy and melancholy at its core to the foreground. On “Sugar High (シュガーハイ),” the rhythms, syllable structure and wordplay of Japanese reshape one of her most playful, experimental songs – and the way Mai writes and sings it.
“I’ve always been scared of being understood in just one dimension,” Mai Anna shares. “Music gives me a space to explore all these different versions of myself. These songs each show a different layer of who I am, and revisiting them gave me a chance to push those layers even further before sharing the full world of Sleepy Eyes.”
Now signed to Epic Records / Not So Fast, Mai Anna’s early rise has been met with a co-sign from SZA, praise from Billboard, VIBE, COLORSxSTUDIOS and The Joe Budden Podcast, and cross-DSP backing including Spotify R&B Weekly, Apple Music R&B Now, Amazon Music Breakthrough R&B and a TIDAL R&B Rising cover. “Sugar High” also landed an official placement on the FIFA Heroes videogame soundtrack.
Live performance has been central to Mai Anna’s artistry long before her recorded debut. A classically trained figure skater, she brought that side of herself to the “Baby Blue” visual, taking to the ice with Fox accompanying her on piano.
Performances with On The Radar and Red Couch Show have since put her voice front and center, while she recently took the stage at The Basement Series in the Vinyl Room at the Hollywood Palladium as well as Conscious Music Circle in Los Angeles.
Next, Mai Anna will join GIVĒON for two select dates this November, with performances at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles on November 17 and Carnegie Hall in New York City on November 19.
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