“It’s All About Mindset”: Mahalia on Finding Her Focus, Staying Authentic and Creating Genre-Defying Music
Signed at 13, the 20-year-old R&B star is one wise woman
Words Marianna Manson
Photography Catherine Harbour
Fashion Editor Nini Khatiblou
For Mahalia, ‘psycho-acoustic soul’ trailblazer and bonafide R&B veteran at just 20 years old, appearing on the cover of PHOENIX Digital’s September issue is a pretty big deal.
“It’s really exciting for me, it’s so sick,” she enthuses, when I tell her our interview will be taking the top spot. “I used to always read PHOENIX mag online, and follow it on Instagram. It’s always so cool for me to be involved in something I’ve followed and really liked.”

Seven years already into her career, you’d think that cover interviews and glossy shoots would be old hat for Mahalia – but it’s only in the last few that she’s really started taking her rising star seriously. Signing at just 13, navigating a blossoming career in the music industry wasn’t easy.
“It’s really hard for a kid to know exactly what it is that they want anyway, but even though I desperately wanted to, I couldn’t get myself to focus. For a long time, I was really disappointed with myself, with how I treated [the opportunity] and my relationship with music,” she says. “Now that I’m here, I feel like I can just go with it, it’s all about mindset. It was worse when I didn’t really know what I was doing, I put a lot of pressure on myself without even realising.”

Jumper, DOLCE & GABBANA at FLANNELS
Skirt, WHYTE STUDIO at WOLF & BADGER
Necklace, VINTAGE GIVENCHY at SUSAN CAPLAN
In 2018, ‘here’ has turned out to be a pretty incredible place for the Leicester-born, Birmingham-educated singer. Initially, Mahalia kept her record deal a secret from her peers at her performing arts college. But when she was invited to perform on stage by Ed Sheeran himself, that she was destined for great things was impossible to ignore. With recent collaborations with Rudimental and Kojey Radical under her belt, it’s clear that her emotive blend of neo-soul and 90’s R&B (coined ‘psycho-acoustic soul’ by her musician father) has hit a sweet spot in UK music.
Pop culture cannot get enough of 90’s influence right now, with everything from the high-street to publishing drawing inspiration from the decade. Mahalia is in good company with the new school of Brit Girl Power: big-voiced artists with attitude pushing low slung grooves such as Mabel, Charli XCX, Dua Lipa, and ex PHOENIX cover star Jorja Smith.
My parents taught me loads of little things early on that I’m now working through for myself as an adult and projecting onto my career.
Despite being born in the early noughties, Mahalia’s upcoming EP (check back here on 7th September for the announcement of the record title) is all slow jams with ‘up yours’ lyrics layered over electro-synth samples laid down in the studio by the likes of producer Felix Joseph. There are old school nods to distinctly 21st century relationships, with intricate ad-libbing and pop-tinged effects for a nostalgic sound reminiscent of All Saints, or early Sugababes.
“My parents taught me loads of little things early on that I’m now working through for myself as an adult and projecting onto my career,” she says of being brought up by parents both in the industry. “When my dad came up with the term ‘psycho acoustic soul’, I hadn’t really started working out what I was. It could have been any three words but I loved it, I was like, ‘that’s what I am dad, you got it right.’”

Top, KENZO at FLANNELS
Jeans and shoes, both GOOD AMERICAN
Earrings and necklace, both GUESS
I’m at an age now when women are from Venus and men are from Mars and I don’t know how to get into a guy’s mind. It’s such a universal experience that I think, why not write about that?
“What he was saying was that I was allowed to have my own genre. I just thought it was amazing that he felt like I could be something separate [to the rest of the industry] – I’ve always held onto that.”
A dab hand at raw sincerity, she does admit that as she’s matured she’s found it harder to open up entirely in her music. Having grown up on the ‘strong female artists’ her musician mother played her to give her something better to aspire to than the pop-stars on telly at the time, emotionally sincere songwriting is at the core of her musical identity: Gill Scott, Billie Holliday – “Joni Mitchell is still one of my favourites.”
“I write about love a lot because I think that’s just a taste in my mouth right now,” she says. “I’m at an age now when women are from Venus and men are from Mars and I don’t know how to get into a guy’s mind. It’s such a universal experience that I think, why not write about that?”

Jumper, DOLCE & GABBANA at FLANNELS
Skirt, WHYTE STUDIO at WOLF & BADGER
Necklace, VINTAGE GIVENCHY at SUSAN CAPLAN
Her experience as a young female within the male-dominated music industry can be challenging though. “It’s a lot,” she confides. “Some days you handle it better than other days. When you’re the only girl, it gets quite frustrating when you feel that your point isn’t backed in the right way. I actually work with a lot of guys in the studio, and when you’re making a point to six or seven adult men, sometimes you can feel quite patronised. But I guess you get that in any industry.”
Shy and retiring Mahalia certainly is not. She talks with mile-a-minute enthusiasm and isn’t coy about saying what she really thinks. She feels like she’s “always been a ‘take-no-bullshit’ kind of girl”, explaining: “There’s a lot of older guys telling you how you should be, look like and act. Sometimes I’m just like, ‘Fuck off. Just stop talking to me’. I would love for men to understand how dominating they can be.”
“As a woman, you have to be so super strong sometimes just to take on men and I don’t understand why. Can’t we just be regular strong women, and say what we think?”
By the evidence of Mahalia: oh, yes.
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Words Marianna Manson
Photography Catherine Harbour
Fashion Editor Nini Khatiblou
Make-up Artist Victoria Bond
HairStylist Elvire Roux
Nail Technician Bindiya Malik