The singer who got her first break when Ed Sheeran raved about her said this amid promoting the album and trying to get fans to pre-order it ahead of its release.

Announcing on her twitter, the singer said fans cold win special prizes if they pre-order her new IRL album including a one-on-one manicure with her, invitation to rehearsals and an album launch party, and more.

She went on to reveal days later that she was still indebted to her label even though she had millions of streams on her songs.

“I have been signed to since I was 13. I’m 25 now which basically means I’ve racked up 12 years of debt. I have never made a penny off of my own music. 100 million streams with all money made going to my label. This is pretty standard practice in most major label contracts”, she wrote.

Replying to a curious fan who asked about spotify and streaming, she explained, “the way this works is the part that ‘goes to artist’ basically is what pays back the label. In my case it’s 20%. So 20% of 0.005 goes back to label to pay them back for the money they put into developing me. Does that make sense? I don’t get my 20% direct until I’m out of debt”.

Responding to a question by a fan on why she joined the label, the singer said that’s what everyone did 12 years ago.

“I was young and it was pretty crazy to be from such a small town way outta London and have labels offering me a deal. There was a time when signing a deal was what most artists did. If it was now, it might be a different story”, she said.

Mahalia, seemingly in a frustrated tone, went on to talk on how the RNB/Soul genre especially from female singers doesn’t get as much support in the UK as other genres. 

Despite her struggles, the artist remains a hard worker and has been pushing out great music ever since she started. Her forthcoming album, IRL, is set for release on 14 July.

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