Emei – NIGHT AT THE OPERA: INTERMISSION
Basking in the spotlight of a breakout year, Chinese-American alternative pop singer/songwriter Emei uncovers her anxiously awaited new 2-pack Night At The Opera: Intermission out now via Atlantic Records in partnership with multi-GRAMMY® Award-winning mega-producer Ricky Reed’s Nice Life.
The project notably boasts her bombastic and blunt new single “Regularly Scheduled Program.
She stoked anticipation for the song’s arrival by previewing it on tour to a groundswell of enthusiasm from fans. The track opens with seesawing strings punctuated by warped plucks of a harp as her sunny delivery belies the seething rage of lines like, “So clearly I’m a little bit unwell, thanks to you my special friend from Hell!” The veneer breaks, and a rush of glitchy electronic distortion and thunderous drums underline her lament, “You keep coming back. How long will this last? Back to our regularly scheduled program.”
It’s sour, sticky, and shockingly catchy all at once—like an kiss-off arena-ready anthem born in a Broadway back alley!
About “Regularly Scheduled Program,” Emei commented, “I! LOVE! THIS! SONG!!! It’s about feeling like you’re finally moving on and everything is great and then life coming in and being like ‘Psych!!!! You thought!!!!’ It’s about being triggered. It’s about running into your past enemies. It’s about holding it together when life feels like it’s falling apart. There’s lines plucked straight out of my journal and scenes plucked straight out of deranged Disney. I leaked this one for the first time on tour and the crowd erupted in cheers because man it hits even harder live! I cannot wait for my fans to finally have this studio version to rock out to.”
She teased the 2-pack with “Molly.” The latter has already generated nearly 1 million total streams, boosting Emei’s Spotify monthly listeners to just shy of 2 million.
Expanding her imprint on culture, Emei recently contributed “The Understudy” to Steps (Soundtrack from the NETFLIX Film), which arrives on November 20. The Soundtrack features four original songs written and produced by GRAMMY® Award nominee Justin Tranter, with additional vocals by Academy® Award nominee Amanda Seyfried, Rose Gray, Emei, and score by Academy® Award winner Kris Bowers (Bridgerton).
Emei added, “As a theater kid and animation lover, I was so so excited to be approached by Alyce and Netflix for writing a song for Steps. It’s honestly a dream come true and when I saw the scene we were writing for, I got even more stoked. Understudy is such a special song to me as often in my life I’ve felt overlooked and misunderstood, just like Lilith! It also has so many references to theater lingo and baby theater kid Emei inside me is so happy. It was such an honor to create this one with a great team, spearheaded by Justin Tranter, who is absolutely brilliant. He made it so easy for me to express myself and the scream at the tail end of the song is by FAR my favorite thing I’ve sung into a mic. Can’t wait to see it in its full form in the movie. LILITH 5EVER!”
Right now, she’s in the midst of her 18-date North American fall headline Night At The Opera Tour, which kicked off on September 30 in San Francisco, CA at Bimbo’s 365 Club. Among many highlights, she took over Sony Hall in New York, NY for a two-night stand last weekend. The jaunt concludes on October 30 at The Novo in Los Angeles, CA. This run followed two sellouts this summer at The Slipper Room in New York and Troubadour in Los Angeles
Oct 24 – Atlanta, GA – Buckhead Theatre
Oct 26 – Austin, TX – Scoot Inn
Oct 27 – Dallas, TX – Echo Lounge
Oct 30 – Los Angeles, CA – The Novo
#its.emei