After 25 years within the music business, Mýa is displaying no indicators of slowing down. The pop-R&B star made her debut in 1998, when she put out her self-titled studio album by way of Interscope Information. The debut single from the album, “It’s All About Me” with Sisqó, reached No. 6 on the Billboard Sizzling 100 and put the world onto Mýa’s sultry, angelic voice and cutting-edge R&B sound that infiltrated the mainstream pop market whereas drawing influences from hip-hop, dancehall, techno and extra.
She revealed in a brand new interview with Billboard Information that the outfit she wore within the “It’s All About Me” music video, which was impressed by the normal crimson Chinese language marriage ceremony gown, is her all-time favourite look. “I sketched that outfit on paper, drew the designs that I wished and I noticed it come to life,” she stated. “However that is one thing that I’ve been doing for years. I’ve this entire sketchbook of outfits that I wished to create earlier than I signed my first deal. And so, that was one in all them. The seamstress introduced it to life, and that was a tremendous expertise for me as a model new artist.”
In June, she re-created the UNC jersey gown from her 2000 “Better of Me (Half 2)” video, that includes Jay-Z, whereas she was acting at Charlotte R&B Music Expertise. (This reporter additionally re-created the UNC jersey gown look, in addition to Mýa’s outfit from the 1999 “Take Me There” video with Blackstreet, Mase and Blinky Blink, attributable to limitless claims that she resembles the singer. Resolve for your self within the video interview above!)
Except for her iconic seems to be, pop-dancehall collaborations have been one other fixed in Mýa’s storied profession. Over time, she’s labored with Jamaican reggae and dancehall artists like Beenie Man (“Ladies Dem Sugar,” “Lie Detector,” “Docta”), Sean Paul (“Issues Come & Go”), Spice (“Take Him Out”) and, most lately, Bounty Killer, on her newest steamy single “Whine.”
“Joke is I had a solo model of the video shot two years previous to reaching out to Bounty Killer,” she says. “And I’ve all the time wished a characteristic on that file. And so we went again right down to Jamaica two years later, to the identical location, and put Bounty Killer within the video, inserted him, and all of it seems to be cohesive now.”
Of her pop-dancehall collaborations, Mýa says they really feel like a household effort. “Each time I am going down there, it’s normally for music. However then my associates, music pals, turn out to be like household through the years. We perceive the fantastic thing about independency but additionally working collectively. And so, that’s a giant a part of the tradition, too,” she explains. “I believe it’s vital additionally to only be genuine for illustration, so it was vital for me to be in Kingston, within the coronary heart of Jamaica, to seize the essence of the nice vibes and the music, the tradition and the folks and the dance.”
Exterior of her debut LP’s twenty fifth anniversary this yr, Mýa additionally celebrated the twentieth anniversary of her third album Moodring, which peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and earned her one other Sizzling 100 prime 20 hit with “My Love is Like…Wo.” (Missy Elliott co-produced the observe two years after working along with her on the five-week No. 1, Grammy-winning smash “Girl Marmalade” with Christina Aguilera, P!nk and Lil’ Kim from the Moulin Rouge! soundtrack.)
Earlier this yr, she collaborated with Interscope/UMe to launch the digital deluxe twenty fifth anniversary version of Mya, the digital deluxe twentieth anniversary version of Moodring and the “twenty fifth Anniversary Remix” of “It’s All About Me,” accompanied by the Brian Friedman-directed choreography video. Come December, Mýa will ring within the fifteenth anniversary of her fifth album Sugar & Spice.
“I used to be a child, I used to be a child, every part was model new. Working within the studio with Dru Hill for the primary album was actually like a household and a camp, so I had huge brothers round me … I realized quite a bit from them, watching them,” she displays. “It’s only a stunning journey. I’m excited as nicely about what’s to come back. I simply love music, so it’s a blessing to only nonetheless be right here 25 years later and nonetheless really feel prefer it’s model new.”
Watch the complete video interview above.