BMG recording artist Emmy Meli has released her debut EP Hello Stranger – featuring seven tracks that represent seven years of her life, akin to a coming-of-age tale. Hello Stranger takes its name from Barbara Lewis’ 1961 R&B hit, which Meli covers as the first track, paying homage to the musical influences that have shaped her journey.

The EP was recorded with producer collective Some Randoms (Reneé Rapp, John Legend, Kehlani). The single ‘Aura’ boasts a dynamic collaboration with rapper Baby Tate.

Meli said, “’Aura’ is a song for the people who glow from the inside out. Whose beauty and effervescence turn every head in the room because they shine in such an inexplicable way. It’s for those who’ve grown into exactly who they’re meant to be because they stay true and everyone can tell. If a song could smell good, it would be ‘Aura’.”

Breaking out in late 2021, Meli reached viral stardom with her self-love mantra ‘I AM WOMAN’. The song stemmed from sticky note affirmations she left for herself around her house. The acclaimed track was selected as the theme song for Megan Markle’s podcast Archetypes, the largest podcast synch in history, and has earned over 350m streams. 

The soundtrack to Meli’s youth included the jazz greats Dinah Washington and Ella Fitzgerald, as well as more contemporary artists like Lauryn Hill. By high school, she was recording her songs and secretly releasing them on SoundCloud. Her parents convinced her to go to community college, but shortly thereafter she transferred to the Musicians Institute in Hollywood, and then once the pandemic hit she dropped out. Instead, she focused on what she had wanted to do all along: write and record her own songs while she simultaneously worked three jobs to make it happen. Taking elements of Soul, Pop, and Hip-Hop and filtering them through her mere 24 years as a woman in music, it’s no surprise that Meli’s behind the song which sparked a Gen-Z feminist movement in 2022.  

The R&B-Pop singer has since opened for Fletcher, Hayley Kiyoko and performed at Lollapalooza and Firefly Music Festival.  Her music has appeared in ad campaigns for Intimissimi, Triumph UK, Savage Fenty, and Disney+.