Named ‘The Story of Mahalia’, the first episode, ‘Roots’, gives fans an insight into Mahalia’s life growing up and where her journey began. The episode begins with a clip of the singer herself saying, “I always, always thought that I was gonna do it and I never let go of that. You know, like I always though “I wanna do this. No-one’s gonna stop me.”

Viewers are also able to hear Mahalia’s story of being signed to Atlantic Records at the age of 13. The artist shares her experience as a young woman in the modern day music industry, saying “The industry’s strange place. It’s a strange industry to grow up in, and a strange industry to be a girl in as well – when so many people are always looking at you.”

Mahalia’s career really took off with the release of her single ‘Sober’ in 2017. The track currently has over 30 million plays on Spotify, with the moody music video reaching 2 million views.

Previously, YouTube has worked with many rising stars on their ‘Artist on the Rise’ episodes, including 2020 Brit Award winer Mabel. Other artists who have participated are Dermot Kennedy, Maggie Rogers, Jessie Reyez and Ella Mia, who Mahalia collaborated with on the track ‘What You Did’ from her latest album ‘Love and Compromise’.

The album came out in 2019 and is the last new music we’ve heard from the singer. She posted on social media telling fans that she had some music which didn’t make it onto the album, but she wanted them to hear it. No further information has been released regarding this, but the singer-songwriter appears to have something in the works.

View this post on Instagram

I found some music that I didn’t put on the album that I wanna give to u

A post shared by Mahalia (@mahalia) on Apr 6, 2020 at 4:47am PDT

Mahalia is also set to tour the UK this summer in promotion of the new album, but this may be cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Keep updated on the official website.