Boo'd Up

Originally released as a single from Ella Mai's 2017 Ready EP, "Boo'd Up" slowly gained traction before becoming the English R&B singer's first Hot 100 hit the following year. Mai credits the track's popularity to its nostalgic feel and catchy chorus, explaining to Billboard: "The song's content is very innocent and very loving, something any age group can relate to. Everyone has been in a situation where, as I say in the song, they're head over heels in love with someone. No else really matters at that point. It's just about that person."

The music video, which features a cameo from Khalid, strikes a balance between innocence and romance. Mai describes the clip as having "more of a fun feel: kind of like a date night with the person I'm talking about." She added, "I didn't want the video to be overly romantic... there's a story line but it's more so about capturing different moments with friends and then just myself and my love interest."

Ella Mai co-wrote the song with Joelle James (Chris Brown's "4 Seconds", Kevin Hart's "Scream") and California producer DJ Mustard (Tyga's "Rack City," Rihanna's "Needed Me"). Asked by Genius how came up with the phrase "boo'd up," Mai replied: "We were trying to have it as a double meaning. It's like the sound of a heart beat-ish. It's the closest we could get it to the sound of a heartbeat, so the badoo boodup, and if you think about heartbeat like badoom badoom badoom badoom type of thing. And then boo'd up obviously just having a boo and making it a phrase. It was a really clever way of putting the two together, and I think it makes it super catchy. We just came up with it."