London-born R&B singer Ella Mai has made her most personal statement yet with her third studio album, Do You Still Love Me? Released on February 6, 2026, the project arrives after years of anticipation from fans and critics alike.
From Breakout Star to Reflective Songstress
Ella Mai first became well-known globally with the popularity of “Boo’d Up,” which dominated the R&B charts in the late 2010s and received much praise for its throwback soul warmth.
Following her 2018 self-titled debut and 2022’s Heart on My Sleeve, Mai’s music and character kept changing—but nothing in her catalog prepared supporters for the vulnerability at the core of Do You Still Love Me? Produced only with her longtime friend Mustard, the album covers fourteen songs mixing sensitive, modern R&B with introspective lyricism.
The name itself reads like a question addressed at the center of what it means to stay open to love following pain, development, and personal change. For Mai, life changes—including pregnancy and motherhood—informed this introspection, therefore giving the song an emotional core that differs from a typical love album.
Love in Its Many Shades
Do You Still Love Me? is essentially an investigation of the contradictions of love. Songs such as “Somebody’s Son” and “There Goes My Heart” perfectly capture the thrill of new relationships and expectations, and they also showcase expressive songwriting that seems more mature and grounded than Mai’s earlier hits.
We can also see this duality in the track “100,” which provides honest vulnerability and passionate warmth that mirror Mai’s readiness to say exactly what’s on her mind: 100% commitment, even in love’s gray areas.
As Mai makes clear her expectation for truth and clarity in a relationship—an interpolation of Destiny’s Child’s “Say My Name”—which gives a nostalgic nod to R&B’s past while still feeling deeply personal in the present, “Tell Her” trades sultry anticipation for realism and confrontation.
If you follow the arc of the album, the emotional path parallels the lived experience of mature love. These layers show through in more silent moments that give piano, percussion, and warm synth textures precedence to let her voice breathe.
Production and Artistic Direction
Do You Still Love Me? allowed Mustard’s production and Mai’s voice and narration to shine. Known for club anthems and upbeat songs, Mustard instead chooses here for more subdued arrangements, really giving the platform for Mai to show her vocals and lyricism. Critics have pointed out this change. Emphasizing Mai’s emotional honesty and a more mature soundscape than prior works, Pitchfork notes that the album melds early-2000s R&B influences with a modern SoCal sensibility.
Critical Reception
Do You Still Love Me? has received mainly favorable reviews since its publication. On the other hand, sites like Ratings Game Music characterize the album as “smooth, sincere R&B” that conveys intimacy with emotional complexity. Other critics like Clash Music referred to it as a warm and personal follow-up to her emotionally grounded approach, highlighting remarkable moments in which Mai really shines.
Looking Ahead
All in all, the legacy of this album may hinge less on chart performance and more on its position in the development of contemporary R&B. It challenges comparisons to Mai’s previous successes as well as suggests a will to go beyond them. In an era when many artists pursue viral hits, releasing a profoundly contemplative R&B album in 2026 is something gently revolutionary.
Do You Still Love Me? is all about accepting emotional truth and reminds us that love—in all its forms—is worth asking about over and over.
