Ego Ella May is a British-Nigerian award winning singer-songwriter and musician. Hailing from South London, the critically acclaimed artist has an all-encompassing love of music, which she channels into her own genre blending R&B, neo-soul and contemporary jazz compositions.
At the heart of Ego’s writing is a deep passion and respect for jazz. Touching on her writing process and her connection to her craft, she explains: “Everyone’s ears are so different, so I let them be the judge, but the root of it all is jazz. I write what’s on my mind, or if I have a burning desire to write. My favourite quote is “you have to read, to write” so I spend a lot of time reading novels, poetry and books about my history”.
Ego Ella May has a high level of admiration for people who show their vulnerabilities through music, and uses this as a source of inspiration; “It’s so easy to lie to yourself and others, so I really admire people who have the audacity to be truthful”. Her songwriting takes influences from equal measures of reflective moments of solitude and conversations with friends which she demonstrates with effortless power in each unique voicing.
The fast rising talent is quickly building a noteworthy catalogue of releases including her impressive debut LP HONEY FOR WOUNDS, a soul-tingling blend of Jazz, R&B and Neo Soul vocal musicality. Incredibly honest self-penned, personal and observational lyrics are laced with tales of self-healing, protest, love and loss, global issues and more. This is all set to a sonic backdrop crafted with some of the most exciting creatives including Alfa Mist, Theo Croker, Eun, Melo-Zed, Oscar Jerome, Joe Armon-Jones (Ezra Collective), Wu-Lu, Eddie Hick (Sons of Kemet), Maralisa (Space Captain), Tom Excell, Andrew Ashong and more.
This release led to her taking home the Best Jazz Act award at the 2020 MOBO Awards, and also made an impressive debut on COLORS TV, performing “In The Morning” and “Girls Don’t Always Sing About Boys”). Tracks from ‘Honey For Wounds’ have been featured in Issa Rae’s ‘Insecure’, Netflix’ ‘Sex Education’ + ‘Dear White People’, Oprah Winfrey’s OWN series ‘Queen Sugar’, BBC comedy ‘Dreaming Whilst Black’ and many more.
Following the release of the deluxe release of her debut album in June 2021, a win at the 2021 JAZZ FM Awards (Best Vocalist), several features + writing credits for the likes of Ari Lennox, Theo Croker, Kojey Radical and many more as well as a sold out headline UK tour, Ego also released 2 parts of her critically acclaimed EP series - FIELDNOTES (FIELDNOTES PT II received a 5 star review in the Telegraph newspaper).
With a new project set for release in 2023, Ego Ella May is set to go from strength to strength.
