UMI IS ON A FEATURE RUN THE R&B AND SOUL SINGER-SONGWRITER CONTINUES A GROWING STREAK OF COLLABORATIONS OUT NOW
UMI has never wanted to just tell her own story. When she released her Epic Records debut, People Stories, last year, she said she wanted to be “the storyteller, the vessel to express everyone’s stories.” This year, she’s living that on two fronts at once. Between the People Stories world tour and a wave of guest appearances, UMI has quietly become one of music’s most in-demand collaborators, notching multiple new features, some already out and more on the way.
UMI’s ability to disappear inside someone else’s song without losing herself is exactly what keeps landing her in the credits of artists from every corner of the map, each one pulling something different out of her voice. She’s already featured on “die 4 life?”, from South Florida singer Q Marsden’s debut album DO YOU SEE ME?, and on Spain-born, boundary-pushing artist CARLA’s “HOT”. She’ll also appear on Japanese star Fuji Kaze’s “YOU,” North Carolina rapper Mez’s “Platinum Fubu,” the lead single from his upcoming album, and Filipino-Australian singer-songwriter grentperez’s “Close to You.” The Fuji Kaze feature carries extra resonance for UMI, whose own mother is from Japan. It’s a growing list of names that already includes BTS’s V and EXO’s Baekhyun.
The features are arriving in the middle of a packed solo stretch. Her album People Stories was released to widespread acclaim and earned her Billboard’s R&B Rookie of the Month honor, with the outlet calling it a “globally resonant healing experience.” Each song on the album was inspired by a story a fan, friend or loved one told her. The People Stories world tour has kept her constantly on the road, with stops across the UK and Europe and a run of Blue Note Jazz Club dates in Los Angeles, New York and Honolulu, including a set at Head In The Clouds sharing the bill with Rich Brian, KATSEYE and XG.
UMI’s rise has been anything but conventional. A native of Seattle raised by a mother who taught her piano and a father who played drums, she began writing songs at five years old and started posting them, years later, to SoundCloud with nothing but a USB microphone. She left USC to pursue music full time, moving between independence and label deals on her own terms before releasing People Stories.
Connection over competition has always been her instinct, and it’s earned her respect across genres, including through her work with BTS’s V. “I reached out in a DM,” UMI told RIFF Magazine. “He’s such a friendly person, genuinely such an amazing person. He reached out to talk to me and took the time to talk about what we like musically. Organically, we were like, ‘Should we make a song together?’ So I sent him a bunch of the songs I’d been making. He picked one that he liked, and then he recorded it.”
Between the People Stories album, a nonstop world tour and a slate of features that spanned styles and continents, UMI has shown she can hold her own spotlight while still fully showing up in someone else’s. That combination has carried her to millions of monthly listeners and a spot on this year’s Forbes 30 Under 30 for music, proof that she’s thriving as a solo star while becoming everyone’s favorite feature.
UMI’S 2026 COLLABORATIONS
1. Q Marsden — “die 4 life?”
2. CARLA — “HOT”
3. Fuji Kaze — “YOU”
4. Mez — “Platinum Fubu”
5. grentperez — “Close to You”
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