EXCLUSIVE: Behind-the-scenes as Emei takes to The Garage

Whether you are one of the millions who meet Emei when scrolling on TikTok or part of the sold-out 600-capacity crowd at her landmark headline show at The Garage in London – it’s impossible not to be taken by the rising star.

The 24-year-old has burst onto the scene since 2020, armed with a catalogue of earworm pop hits and a recipe for viral success. In Highbury on Sunday night, that all comes to life with a bang as Emei brings her first-ever headline tour to a close.

“I’m trying really hard to just enjoy myself but there is grief inching inwards,” Emei admits to CelebMix backstage at The Garage. “I’m trying to keep it out. I’m allowing myself to cry twice because I should not cry the whole set… but I could!”

An hour later when Emei bounds on stage to the opening tones of ‘That Girl’, you’d never know that she’d spent the day fighting back tears at the idea of tour coming to an end. The chorus of the opener is immediately hit with a wall of sound from London fans as a huge grin creeps across Emei’s face.

The singer had spoken of being impressed at the level of sound produced by European crowds on this run of shows and that’s even easier to hear as the venue turns into a football stadium when rallying back the anthemic refrain of ‘Irresponsible’.

While Emei may have feared the waterworks starting and never stopping in London, really there’s little time to get caught up in the emotion of it all. The songwriter’s tracks are brimming with big production and quirky lines that make for a high-tempo set.

A relentless start continues with the funky ‘Ferris Bueller’ and ‘End of an Era’ is a euphoric ditty apt for closing this chapter in her career. Later on, ‘Love Me Not’ is a piece of genius pop writing and there’s even time for a quickfire cover of Carly Rae Jepsen smash ‘Call Me Maybe’.

“I saw her one time at a lunch spot in LA, maybe the peak moment in my life,” Emei jokes to CelebMix. Explaining the choice of cover, she adds, “The goal is that every show of mine feels like a singalong party.

“‘Call Me Maybe’ feels perfect because of the amount of times I’ve screamed that song with my friends.”

The highlight of the night does come as Emei slows proceedings down halfway through her set, allowing time to reminisce on her journey to this point. She reminds the crowd that less than a year ago she was playing The Grace upstairs at the same venue to crowds of 150 people.

“It makes so much sense to end it here,” she says before the show. “The Grace wasn’t just my first London show, it was my first headline show ever.

“It’s so cool that this is the night that ends my first tour ever. It’s so lovely and I’ve gotten to meet a lot of people who were here at The Grace, it’s so cool.”

Shortly after that speech, Emei descends into the crowd and takes a seat on the floor in what has become a trademark moment in her headline shows. As the crowd folds their legs and sits around her, turning The Garage into feeling like an intimate moment in the star’s own living room, the singer covers a Teresa Teng track before moving into the candid ‘Dear Emily’.

“That started at The Grace,” Emei remembers when explaining how the sat-down moment came to be. “It was completely different, ‘Dear Emily’ wasn’t out yet, it was with a Chinese song because my parents were there.

“It’s a really special moment for me to represent my culture. It’s a huge part of me becoming the artist I am. I wanted to go out in the audience, find my parents and sing to them. Sitting down wasn’t my idea! It was someone in the audience. Since then I’ve done it in every show.”

The night ends at the tempo it started as Emei delivers fan-favourite ‘Cynical’ before bouncing back on stage for an encore with 2023 smash ‘Scatterbrain’.

That single has pulled in huge streaming numbers and it’s no small part down to its playful production that crosses between the worlds of Billie Eilish and PinkPantheress.

“The harmonies made it,” Emei admits when explaining the recording process. “When they came in during the chorus, Boy Blue [her producer] just added it on, and then it clicked and I loved the song. It felt so good on my ears.”

From studio to stage, that ditty fills The Garage and is clearly capable of impacting on much bigger stages too. Armed with tracks like that, the sky is truly the limit.

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