Ella Mnop takes life in stride with her mature debut single L’s With The W’s — showcasing today on Tinnitist.
When you first hear the music of this emerging pop sensation, you might find yourself wondering why you should be taking life advice from someone who isn’t even going to turn 12 until October. Well, for starters, she’s got an original song on the radio. For another thing, she’s already racked up numerous awards and performed for millions of listeners. Oh, and she’s fluent in multiple languages and currently learning Italian. Feeling inadequate yet?
But Ella doesn’t want you to feel bad; she just wants you to have a well-rounded and realistic approach to your own day-to-day reality. On her breakout single L’s With The W’s, she makes a compelling case that savouring one’s triumphs depends upon learning how to lose with dignity.
There’s no doubt the record is a big W. It has a bouncy, breezy feel that makes it the ideal platform for Ella’s endearing preteen timbre, which effortlessly conveys the kind of earnestness we grownups can usually only fake. Not that the track didn’t benefit from adult supervision: Its aural smarts are all credit to superstar producer Adam H. (Ne-Yo, Elise Estrada, Loverboy) and Grammy-winning mixer Orlando Calzada (Lady Gaga, One Direction, Beyoncé). What they’ve come up with together portends great things indeed for Ella’s debut album, due in 2025.
In a voice dripping with confidence, she urges us to “get that makeup out and put that game face on / Don’t sweat the sprint cause it’s a marathon.” Cue the killer chorus, which brings everything into focus:
“Gotta take the L’s with the W’s
Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose
L’s with the W’s
You haven’t lived until you do
You will never feel them highs
If you never feel the lows
Gotta take the L’s with the W’s.”
“Life is full of setbacks and doesn’t always go as planned,” Ella says. “It can be cruel, but the people who stick with it and seek a better day often get rewarded, and get to appreciate how special a gift life really is. This song is my message to everyone who wants to quit when things get tough that if they stick it out, they’ll enjoy the wins much more, because they’ll have endured and dealt with their losses.”
Yet the greatest career influence in Ella’s life is undoubtedly her father, an avid musician whom she was watching perform when she was still in a stroller. It’s him she credits with inspiring her to sing, write and do shows of her own. And it was singing duets with him on Good Morning America in 2021 that first exposed her to a mass audience: Two million viewers, to be exact. Dad also co-wrote the new single with her (along with Adam H. and Don Wolf.)
A chip off the block, Ella has won the Vocalstar competition in Hollywood, sung the anthem for the Windsor Spitfires and Windsor Express, and made multiple appearances at the Miss Universe Canada Pageant and the Can/Am Games for Firefighters and Police Officers. She has also scored herself a thriving side hustle in animation, lending her voice to projects for Netflix and Cartoon Network, including the upcoming series Barney’s World.
Check out L’s With The W’s above and below, and follow Ella Mnop on Instagram.
