# Umi (singer)

Tierra Umi Wilson (born February 9, 1999), known mononymously as Umi, is an American singer and songwriter. Born in Seattle, Washington, she attended the University of Southern California, but dropped out in 2019 in order to pursue music. She is best known for her 2018 song "Remember Me", which has over 160 million streams on Spotify. She also accompanied Conan Gray as an opening act on his Comfort Crowd Tour in 2019. The same year, she released her second EP, Love Language. In 2020, she released the EP Introspection, along with a short film to accompany the project. The following year, she released a remixed version of this EP titled Introspection Reimagined, which featured live, jazz and neo-soul inspired reworks of the tracks. On May 26, 2022, Wilson released her debut studio album Forest in the City, later embarking on her first headlining tour, the Forest in the City Tour, in support of its release. In 2023, she released Wherever u r. a single in collaboration with Korean singer V of BTS. In January 2024, she released an EP titled Talking to the Wind. Later that year, she accompanied singer Jhene Aiko as an opening act on the Magic Hour Tour.

## Early life

Wilson was born in Seattle in 1999 to an African-American father and a Japanese mother. Her mother taught her how to read, write, and speak Japanese. Wilson's mother plays piano and her father plays the drums. UMI started writing music when she was 4 or 5, with a songwriting journal. Throughout high school, she was involved in DECA (Distributive Education Clubs of America) and her track team at Tahoma High School in Maple Valley. In high school, she discovered YouTube beats and started writing to tracks. She would record the songs with a USB mic and upload them to SoundCloud and YouTube. She soon started to get copyrighted on SoundCloud by posting covers of other songs. This made her start writing and posting her own originals.

## Career
### 2017–2018: Happy Again and debut EP

In 2017, UMI released five singles before her four-track debut EP, Interlude. This led to making it onto Spotify’s Fresh Finds Best of 2017 playlist. She opened for rapper ODIE in Los Angeles.
UMI's most popular release to date is "Remember Me". She has over 33 million views on YouTube and 117 million plays on Spotify. UMI debuted "Remember Me" with a music video, highlighting universalism by portraying couples of different race, class, and sexual orientation. She said, "the message in the video, for me, is that no matter who you love or how you love, we all hurt the same in the end."

### 2019–2021: Balance, Love Language, Introspection EP, and Introspection Reimagined

She released the Balance EP on May 17, 2019, which included the songs "Ordinary" and "Down To Earth." On October 30, 2019, they released their EP, Love Language On June 21, 2020, she released her EP, Introspection. Following the release of her EP, Introspection, UMI released a follow-up EP entitled Introspection Reimagined on March 26, 2021, featuring new versions of the songs on the Introspection EP as well as two new interludes.

### 2022–present: Forest in the City debut album and tour

On May 26, 2022, Umi released her debut album, Forest in the City, which featured the singles "Moonlit Room", "Whatever U Like", and "Sorry", and was the focus of her first headlining tour.

## Artistry

UMI has cited her biggest musical influences as Frank Ocean, D'Angelo, Jhené Aiko, Erykah Badu and SZA. She grew up listening to R&B, soul, gospel and Japanese pop/rock. UMI has been described by Vogue as having a "lo-fi, alternative, laid back, R&B style".

## Discography
### Studio albums

| Title | Details |
| Forest in the City | Released: May 26, 2022 Label: RCA, Keep Cool Formats: Streaming, digital download |

### Extended plays

List of extended plays :
| Title | Details |
| Interlude | Released: January 25, 2018 Label: 408 Format: Streaming, digital download |
| Balance | Released: May 17, 2019 Label: UMI Format: Streaming, digital download |
| Love Language | Released: October 30, 2019 Label: UMI Format: Streaming, digital download |
| Introspection | Released: June 21, 2020 Label: RCA, Keep Cool Format: Streaming, digital download |
| Introspection Reimagined | Released: March 26, 2021 Label: RCA, Keep Cool Format: Streaming, digital download |
| Talking to the Wind | Released: January 19, 2024 Label: RCA, Keep Cool Format: Streaming, digital download |

### Singles
#### As a lead artist

| Title | Year | Peak chart positions | Peak chart positions | Peak chart positions | Peak chart positions | Peak chart positions | Peak chart positions | Album |
| Title | Year | US Dig. | US R&B | CAN Dig. | NZ Hot | UK Dig. | WW | Album |
| "Friendzone" | 2017 | — | — | — | — | — | — | Non-album single |
| "Midnight Blues" | 2018 | — | — | — | — | — | — | Interlude |
| "River" | 2018 | — | — | — | — | — | — | Non-album singles |
| "Remember Me" | 2018 | — | — | — | — | — | — | Non-album singles |
| "Lullaby" (featuring Yeek) | 2018 | — | — | — | — | — | — | Non-album singles |
| "High School" | 2019 | — | — | — | — | — | — | Non-album singles |
| "Down to Earth" | 2019 | — | — | — | — | — | — | Balance |
| "Sonshine" (with Deaton Chris Anthony) | 2019 | — | — | — | — | — | — | BO Y |
| "Love Affair" | 2019 | — | — | — | — | — | — | Love Language |
| "Mother" | 2020 | — | — | — | — | — | — | Non-album single |
| "Introspection" | 2020 | — | — | — | — | — | — | Introspection |
| "Open Up" | 2020 | — | — | — | — | — | — | Introspection |
| "Sorry" | 2022 | — | — | — | — | — | — | Forest in the City |
| "Whatever U Like" | 2022 | — | — | — | — | — | — | Forest in the City |
| "Say Im Ur Luv" | 2022 | — | — | — | — | — | — | Forest in the City |
| "Wish That I Could" | 2022 | — | — | — | — | — | — | Forest in the City |
| "Happy Im" | 2023 | — | — | — | — | — | — | Talking to the Wind |
| "Why Dont We Go" | 2023 | — | — | — | — | — | — | Talking to the Wind |
| "Wherever U R" (featuring V) | 2023 | 5 | 20 | 10 | 3 | 6 | 99 | Non-album single |

#### As a featured artist

| Title | Year | Album |
| "Play Too Much" (Kyle Dion featuring UMI & Duckwrth) | 2020 | Suga |
| "JULIETTE!" (pH-1 featuring UMI) | 2022 | But For Now Leave Me Alone |
| "Lose My Focus" (Raveena featuring UMI) | 2025 | Where the Butterflies Go in the Rain (Deluxe) |

### Promotional singles

| Title | Year | Album |
| "Happy Again" | 2017 | Non-album single |
| "Butterfly" | 2018 | Non-album single |
| "Sukidakara" | 2019 | Love Language |
| "Runnin'" (featuring Yeek) | 2019 | Love Language |
| "Picture Perfect" | 2020 | Non-album single |
| "Pretty Girl hi!" | 2020 | Introspection |
| "Moonlit Room" | 2022 | Forest in the City |