Mahalia was raised in a musical family, where she inherited a love for soul and alternative R&B from both parents. As a child, she was already on stage during open mic nights, and following that, the singer from Leicester signed a record deal with Asylum Records at the age of thirteen, as well as studying acting at the famous Birmingham Ormiston Academy. In the following years, the British singer-songwriter emerged as a creative jack-of-all-trades, touring with Ed Sheeran and Emeli Sandé, releasing her own EPs, and singing the title song of Rudimental's album We The Generation (2015), which attained the top spot in the UK charts. Meanwhile, Mahalia, who views Erykah Badu, Lauryn Hill and Jill Scott as her main inspiration, has both a BRIT and Grammy nomination. Her second studio album, the highly personal IRL, which was inspired by her traumatic break-up, was released last year.
