FEATURE: Spotlight: Mae Muller — Music Musings & Such

FEATURE:

Spotlight

Mae Muller

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YESTERDAY…

it was officially announced that London-based artist Mae Muller would be representing the U.K. in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest. Coming from Liverpool, it will be a year where many people think we will win it. Sam Ryder finished second last year. Many are tipping Muller to go one further. With her terrific track, I Wrote a Song, impressing fans and press alike, it seems like there is a sure-fire winner already concocted. It has all the components needed to get the judges handing out big scores on the night. It is a timely moment to put her in Spotlight and highlight her work. An amazing artist who has released two E.P.s, Chapter 1 (2019), and no one else, not even you (2020), there will be this demand and expectation of an album. After she appears at Eurovision in May, there will be many more people with their eyes trained the way of her amazing music. Before I get to some previous interviews so that we can discover more about the stunning Mae Muller. Here is more information about out Eurovision hopeful and how she came to represent us:

“Following an extensive search headed by 2023 partners the global music management and publishing company TaP Music, the BBC can confirm that singer-songwriter Mae Muller will be representing the United Kingdom at the 67th Eurovision Song Contest, set to be held in Liverpool on behalf of Ukraine, in May 2023 with I Wrote A Song.

The news was exclusively revealed by Zoe Ball on the Radio 2 Breakfast show earlier today (Thursday 9 March) and tonight at 8.55pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer, Scott Mills will have the first exclusive TV interview with Mae and the first televised broadcast of the official music video.

Mae was still working at a pub when she landed her first publishing deal. Within two years she’d released 3 EPs full of pop gems that stood out for their melodic hooks and lyrics that were feisty and unapologetic in their frankness. Stealing the attention of the industry, she supported Little Mix on their 2019 stadium tour, landed millions of YouTube views, and scored a top 10 US chart hit with her platinum selling single ‘Better Days’ which she performed on NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

Having signed to Capitol Records UK (part of Universal Music Group), Mae continues to stand out and in 2022 she was nominated at the MTV EMAs and VMAs. Since then her music has reached over two billion streams and 5.5m monthly listeners on Spotify.

Mae Muller co-wrote I Wrote A Song with Brit-Nominated songwriter Lewis Thompson (David Guetta, Joel Corry, and Raye - Bed) and Karen Poole, who has written for Kylie Minogue, Lily Allen, David Guetta and Alisha’s Attic.

Mae Muller says: ”I'm SO excited to participate in Eurovision this year and represent the UK! I've loved watching Eurovision all my life, so to compete in such a massive music competition is simply brilliant. I’m a huge fan of so many of the artists that have found success at Eurovision, from ABBA to Måneskin! Sam Ryder was so amazing last year and proved the UK can be back on the left-hand side of the leader board! I wrote the song I Wrote A Song a few months ago when I was going through a hard time and wanted to feel empowered about relationships, so for it to be chosen for this year’s UK Eurovision song is honestly a dream!”

TaP Music co-founders Ben Mawson and Ed Millett say: “We have always been fans of Mae for her voice, songs and star charisma, and when we heard I Wrote A Song, we were really taken by its impactful message - “songs as a form of therapy” (a great message for the biggest song contest in the world!) alongside its playful tone and up-tempo fun production. From the moment we met Mae, we knew she would be an incredible ambassador for the UK at Eurovision. Alongside her abundant talent, she has the most wonderfully warm and fun personality and expressed positivity and excitement about the opportunity to represent the UK. We are super excited to work with Mae, EMI and her management company Modest! on supporting Mae to get another great result at Eurovision.”

Jo Charrington, Co-President of EMI says: “We’re incredibly excited for Mae to be the UK’s entry for Eurovision. Mae is a standout talent with superstar quality, she’s bold, charismatic, fun and a mesmerising performer who has already amassed a global following through her music. Working alongside TaP, Modest! and the BBC, we feel hugely confident Mae will deliver an iconic moment for the UK at this year's momentous show in Liverpool."

Rachel Ashdown, Lead Commissioning Editor for Eurovision at the BBC says: “We’d like to thank TaP for their extensive search for the UK entrant for Eurovision this year. Mae’s commitment and drive in representing the UK is undeniably clear and I am certain that she is going to be a brilliant ambassador with I Wrote A Song.”

Suzy Lamb, MD of Entertainment & Music at BBC Studios says: “BBC Studios are so excited Mae Muller will be flying the UK flag on home turf in this very special Eurovision year.  We could see from the very first time we met her that she is a ball of positive energy and we can’t wait for the rest of Europe and beyond to fall in love with her and her fabulous song.”

Tonight on BBC One and iPlayer at 8.55pm, Eurovision 2023: Meet the UK Act will introduce Mae to the UK audience in an exclusive interview with Scott Mills. In the show, Scott will delve into Mae’s career and hear how Mae is preparing for the contest in Liverpool. It will also showcase the music video in the first televised broadcast.

The contest itself will take place in Liverpool in May. The UK are hosting on behalf of Ukraine, following the country’s victory at the 2022 contest with the song Stefania by Kalush Orchestra. The Semi Finals will be broadcast on BBC One and BBC iPlayer on Tuesday 9 and Thursday 11 May at 8pm and the Grand Final will be broadcast on BBC One and BBC iPlayer plus via BBC Radio 2 and BBC Sounds on Saturday 13 May from 8pm.

For the latest information on the United Kingdom at Eurovision 2023, follow @bbceurovision on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok and BBC Eurovision on Facebook.

The BBC One coverage of the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 is a BBC Studios Entertainment Production commissioned by Kalpna Knight-Patel, Head of Entertainment. The Head Of Delegation is Adam Wydrzynski, and the Assistant Head of Delegation is Lucy Youngman. Pete Ogden is the Creative Director for BBC Studios in the North. Suzy Lamb is the MD of Entertainment & Music at BBC Studios. The Lead Commissioning Editor for Eurovision for the BBC is Rachel Ashdown”.

I have known about Mae Muller’s music for a couple of years now, but I did not know much about her in terms of her tastes, upbringing, and ambitions. One of our best Pop artists that can sit alongside Dua Lipa and Charli XCX, she is a fantastic talent who is going to release so much more great music. I know there will be a lot of people crossing fingers she releases a debut album this year. In 2021, Glamour spoke with this incredible rising talent. It is fascinating getting to know more about Muller and the sort of music she listened to when young. She is a strong role model for women around the world. Someone who is empowering, inspiring and hugely talented:

“When you think of big UK music talent you picture Dua Lipa, Adele and Little Mix amongst others. Well, have we got news for you, Mae Muller is about to join this epic roster of talent and we’re getting a front row seat!

Singer, songwriter and professional baddie in our eyes, Mae Muller, 23, confesses that perhaps her passion behind performing came from growing up in her North London family home, fighting for all attention to be on her — blame it on middle child syndrome — although she confesses that her parents went on to have more children, her passion for showcasing her talents didn’t go away:

“I'd stand on the coffee table and sing songs and force everyone to have a look at me. I was always just that annoying kid.” she reveals as she virtually sits down to kiki with GLAMOUR.

It’s obvious that Mae has been working on her impeccable stage presence and her captivating flair for performing for some time, with a unique sound that has the power to span generations.

However, Mae Muller didn’t actually get into music until she turned 19. She reveals that she struggled to find a way in, so resorted to where some of the greats like Justin Bieber and Adele did — social media. “I started putting videos of me singing on Instagram and I put a song up on SoundCloud and then from there it just kind of snowballed. I started getting into sessions and just making more and more music and working on improving my writing skills.”

Mae Muller is now working on her latest music projects and is the ambassador for Love, MeMeMe – a Gen-Z, forward-thinking wellness and skincare brand. We managed to squeeze into her busy schedule to talk all things music, therapy and sharing advice for young women that money can’t buy...

My musical taste comes from listening to Dixie Chicks CDs on long car drives...

“Both of my parents are big music lovers. My grandparents used to live in Wales and I remember being in the car with my mom on these really long car journeys to see them. She’d put on the Dixie Chicks’ album, Home, and I just fell in love with it. I loved their songwriting and storytelling. I just thought it was so beautiful. I think that was really instilled in me from a young age.

I have imposter syndrome, but I also have the opposite as well…

My mom then bought me the All Right, Still album by Lily Allen, and I was definitely too young for those stories, but that was another album that has kind of changed my life. I was like, ‘Who is this girl? She just says whatever she wants, how she wants to say it, telling these insane stories.’ I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I want to do that’ and obviously because she's singing with her London accent, I really heard myself there, I thought it was amazing. It's started my love story for music and storytelling.”

I want to be able to create music that you hear, see and feel...

“I also loved Florence & The Machine. I loved Gwen Stefani, I was obsessed with her when I was younger. Who wasn't? All three of them [including Lily Allen] are such different artists, but what I think they all have in common is that they're really strong women who are amazing storytellers and great writers.

"I'm a very visual person. Whenever you listen to their music, you can really see it and see what they're saying. That's something that I've always really wanted to do on my own art.”

I’m surrounded by powerful woman on my team…

“There are things that are out of your control, like the people that lead your label, and that are on the board of things, but I try to request my direct team to be women, because I think they deserve to be in these spaces too and that makes me more comfortable.

"I've always said, I want my manager to be a woman. I have minimal interest [in being] surrounded by middle-aged men, because – I'm sorry – how can a group of middle-aged men understand exactly what's best for me?

"The president of my label is a woman, which is rare and great. I think women just get it and they just see things differently.”

We need the music industry to be more inclusive...

“We need to look out for each other. I’d like to see people that are in the top positions employing more women. I feel like a lot of the time when you're in the studio, a lot of the writers are women, but a lot of the producers are men. I'd say around 95% of the producers I work with are men. I feel as thought there are so many talented women out there that are just not being given the same opportunities. I think it's just about giving everyone an equal chance and just being vocal and proactive about it”.

Let’s skip forward to last year. As an artist who as releasing material and trying to break through and tour when the pandemic hit, maybe there is a bit of a delay in terms of Mae Muller being on people’s radar. The last couple of days have been a whirlwind for her. So much promotion for Eurovision. A hot tip to win for sure, it will be intriguing to see what she does when it is over in terms of her direction and plans for releases. Women in Pop spoke with Muller about the track, Better Days, songwriting, and taking control:

“You are a major pop powerhouse. The rest of the world sees Sweden as next level when it comes to incredible pop music. Do you feel a little bit like you're in Valhalla at the moment?

Oh, the level of talent here is insane. I've done a writing trip here once before, I had two weeks of writing. And if you do two weeks of writing, and you get two, maybe three good songs that's a good trip, you know? Every single song that I wrote here with the people that I was working with were all amazing. They know how to write a good pop song.

You are a powerhouse, and I have read a couple of interviews where you confessed you were a middle child spotlight puller - great thing! How did you get into music? How did you go from ‘mum, dad look at me’ to where you are today?

Honestly, I just always loved the attention! I've always really enjoyed writing and I've always loved music, but I just didn't really know how to get into it. It was always this big unknown thing. And I would ask, ‘How do people do it? How do you become a singer?’ and people say ‘you get a record deal’. And I'm like, what? You just skipped right to C, what’s A and B first? It was very confusing to me. I just started putting music out on SoundCloud actually, just doing it myself because I was like, ‘I'm just gonna get out there, it doesn't matter if it's not the most sparkly shiny thing’. I just wanted to get my stuff out there. I used to do these little singing videos on Instagram and they were not very good, but then through that I met management and then I just was writing every day and in sessions. I was releasing music independently for a year, and then I got signed [to a label] and that's when it really started popping off.

I want to talk to you as well about your last EP, 2020’s no one else, not even you. This is a work of art, of heart and words. I just love the way you put that EP together. You clearly had your hands on every single moment of the process and I can almost feel like you're learning as you do it and you're leading with your integrity. What does creating and being that present in music, do for you?

It's just a release. I feel like it's really easy to get caught up in the deadlines, the ‘when is this going to happen?' When can we make this work?’ You forget that we're here to make music and I'm so lucky that I'm so involved in the process. It’s been a great release for me and those songs on that EP are so important and it came at such an integral part of this journey. I just feel really lucky that I have, basically, free therapy isn't it? It’s fantastic!

On that, who were those sheros that you were listening to growing up? Who were those women that you were not just pretending to be and singing along to, but who were the ones that you were like, I want to make that?

I used to love Lily Allen when I was younger and especially in a lot of my earliest stuff like you can really hear her influence because I just wanted to tell stories. I used to listen to her and she sang with her with her own accent, with her own voice. She was just herself and I really really liked that. And then I listened to Florence & The Machine, who I love whose storytelling was just incredible. My mum used to play Dixie Chicks and Simon Garfunkel in the car, which was very different to what I do, but it's just amazing storytelling and I've always just been so swept away with that. I've always known that whatever I do, and whatever kind of music I make, I want people to be able to see it and to feel it and for there to be as a message”.

I am going to finish off with a feature from DORK from August. An artist who has captured widespread attention and is someone who is impossible to ignore and dislike, the passion she has for music is clear. After a successful and big year in 2022, this one is going to be the most eventful, successful and greatest so far for her I think! There will be a lot of new fans coming on board and discovering her music. Again, that demand for an album will be undeniable and large:

“You’ve done quite a few collaborations now, but how did this one come about?

I’ve been such a big fan of Marshmello, has such a legend and to work with him was such an honour. I think he heard ‘American Psycho’ while I was in the studio and loved it, so he then made it a million times better. I couldn’t believe it at the time; this was when ‘Better Days’ was really starting to do its thing too, so my life was going absolutely crazy. I’ve been a fan of Trippie Redd for a while and just wanted a cool rapper on it, so we went for it and asked him – the worst he could do is say no, but he said yes and smashed it! His verse added something that neither of us could ever have done. It’s a very unlikely trio, but it really, really works.

You’ve expressed that this song is kick-starting a new era – what’s changed?

‘Better Days’ was my first introduction to success on a new level, and I’d never experienced that level of elevation before; it felt very new. Now that I’ve seen what I can do, I’m trying to go even bigger. This era visually is a bit darker, more intense; it brings out a completely different side to me that I haven’t really shown before. A lot of my stuff is sassy and tongue in cheek, which is a big part of who I am, but it is nice to say no; I can offer some serious shit now. It’s been good for me personally to express that.

You started working on music aged 19 and have been grafting away for the last five years. How did the sudden exposure from that track feel?

Really weird. It happened overnight in a way; it became this massive thing that just kept growing super quickly. I have actually been working on my music for five years, though, it took us so much hard work to get here, and then suddenly, it finally broke through. I felt ready for it because I had worked for that long and had time to figure out who I am. I think it looks really appealing to have overnight success with your first song, but that must actually be really scary because you wouldn’t really know what you’re doing. I feel really blessed to have had that time to grow – I might have found it hard, and I did get a bit impatient, but now that this is happening, I’m really grateful.

Your songs use negative events in your past to instil a sense of self-worth in the present – why do you think that has connected with so many people?

I think that is a universal experience. It’s really easy to get lost in the fear and anxiety of past trauma, and that can stop you from enjoying certain things in the future. Trust is a big thing – once your trust has been broken, it can be really hard to trust someone again. I wanted my music to show that there is life after that negativity, in relationships or anything else. If you feel bad now, that’s not going to last forever. I’ve been through some shit, and yet here I am – you can find power in that”.

Our Eurovision representative this year, and an artist who is being talked about a lot right now, go and follow and support the sensational Mae Muller. I would be interested hearing an album and what else she has to offer. I Wrote a Song is her Eurovision entry. It will definitely be a popular choice on the night! After the dust has settled on the contest in May, all eyes will be on this…