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Basking in the spotlight of a breakout year, Chinese-American alternative pop singer and songwriter Emei has uncovered her new two-pack Night At The Opera: Intermission out now via Atlantic Records in partnership with multi-Grammy Award-winning mega-producer Ricky Reed’s Nice Life.
Regularly Scheduled Program
Night At The Opera: Intermission features Emei’s bombastic and blunt new single Regularly Scheduled Program. Building anticipation for its release, Emei previewed the track on tour, where it was met with an enthusiastic response from fans.
The song opens with seesawing strings punctuated by warped harp plucks, as her sunny delivery contrasts with the seething rage of lines such as: “So clearly I’m a little bit unwell, thanks to you my special friend from Hell!”
As the track progresses, this playful veneer begins to crack, giving way to glitchy electronic distortion and thunderous drums that underscore her exasperated lament: “You keep coming back. How long will this last? Back to our regularly scheduled programme.”
Sour, sticky and shockingly catchy all at once, the track from Night At The Opera: Intermission is like a kiss-off arena-ready anthem born in a Broadway back alley.
Reflecting on the song, Emei shared: “I! LOVE! THIS! SONG! It’s about feeling like you’re finally moving on and everything is great, and then life coming in and being like ‘Psych!!!! You thought!’ It’s about being triggered. It’s about running into your past enemies. It’s about holding it together when life feels like it’s falling apart.
“There are lines plucked straight out of my journal and scenes plucked straight out of deranged Disney. I leaked this one for the first time on tour and the crowd erupted in cheers because man it hits even harder live! I cannot wait for my fans to finally have this studio version to rock out to.”
The Understudy and Steps
Emei previously teased the two-track release with Molly, which has already amassed nearly one million streams across platforms and helped boost her Spotify monthly listeners to just shy of two million.
Beyond her own releases, Emei continues to expand her creative footprint with The Understudy, her contribution to the soundtrack of the Netflix film Steps, arriving Nov 20.
The soundtrack features four original songs written and produced by Grammy Award nominee Justin Tranter, with additional vocals by Academy Award nominee Amanda Seyfried, Rose Gray and Emei, alongside a score by Academy Award winner Kris Bowers (Bridgerton).
Speaking about the project, Emei added: “As a theatre kid and animation lover, I was so so excited to be approached by Alyce and Netflix for writing a song for Steps. It’s honestly a dream come true and when I saw the scene we were writing for, I got even more stoked. Understudy is such a special song to me, as often in my life I’ve felt overlooked and misunderstood, just like Lilith!
“It also has so many references to theatre lingo and baby theatre kid Emei inside me is so happy. It was such an honour to create this one with a great team, spearheaded by Justin Tranter, who is absolutely brilliant. He made it so easy for me to express myself and the scream at the tail end of the song is by FAR my favourite thing I’ve sung into a mic. Can’t wait to see it in its full form in the movie. LILITH 5EVER!”
Emei’s latest releases build on the momentum of her acclaimed Night At The Opera EP, which has earned coverage from major outlets including Variety, OnesToWatch and Billboard.
She first ignited her breakthrough with Scatterbrain, which has garnered more than 100 million cumulative streams.
With her distinctive alternative pop sound and growing presence across music and screen projects, Emei continues to build momentum towards even bigger projects ahead.