FEATURE:
Spotlight: Revisited
the wonderful Madison Beer back in 2021. She is such an important artist and one that people need to know about. Born in Jericho, NY, Beer was discovered on YouTube by Justin Bieber, which then led to her stunning 2013 debut single Melodies. The E.P., As She Pleases, was released in 2018. I discovered her when she released the superb debut album, Life Support, in 2021. I was struck by the raw emotions and honesty in her music. Soul-baring but also connective, in the sense that her music touched people and they could relate to her experience. Although there are quite a few collaborators on 2023’s Silence Between Songs, you can hear Madison Beer’s heart and soul come through. It is her album and voice. What I love is she is an artist who could collaborate and put a load of other artists on her albums, though she prefers to keep things personal and solo. I guess she will collaborate more in the future, but I tend to find it takes away from the directness and personal nature of the music. In the sense these songs are meaningful to her, so having other artists on the top of them takes something away. The extraordinary The Half of It: A Memoir was released in 20232. I would advise people to buy it. I know there are a lot of Madison Beer fans around the world and they will have read her memoir. It will give them a lot of strength. It is an emotional read at times but it does give us an insight into Beer, her music and personal life. I am writing about her now as her third studio album, locket, comes out on 16th January. A matter of days away, I think that this will be one of the most powerful and best albums of the year.
Make you mine, the first single from the album, came out in 2024. It has been a while since the first taste but, rather than release all the singles very shortly before the release and then everything being wrapped up too soon, instead we have this slow release schedule in terms of gaps between singles. Yes Baby and Bittersweet came out in the autumn. They are phenomenal songs. I am excited to see how the album is received. Because locket is about to come out, I want to drop in some interviews with Madison Beer. Someone who discusses mental health issues personal struggles with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), anxiety, and self-harm, Beer also promotes therapy and authenticity. Madison Beer has is someone who supports and promotes body positivity, and advocates for L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ rights. In terms of chronology, I am not going to start with the oldest interview and work to the newest. I really want to start out with Rolling Stone and their interview from November. Madison Beer, as they say in their headline, is ready to get back to Pop. I do think that locket is going to be among the most talked-about albums of this year:
“Madison Beer knew her third album would be called Locket long before she even really dug into making it. After wrapping her most recent tour last fall, she was ready to dive into a new project, and this time around, the title felt important to her. She wanted it to feel authentic to who she is as an artist, perhaps an item or a word that felt tangible.
“I was in my Notes app for weeks on end just writing words I related to,” she says over the phone in early October. “I just kept on gravitating towards [Locket] every single time I would read the list.”
The word became a north star for Beer and her collaborators before they even got back into the studio. They would listen to songs or exchange ideas and say things like “This is so Locket” or “Locket-core.”
As she describes it, both the album and the accessory it’s named after feel like a vessel for her memories. Locket holds all the experiences she’s had that make the project what it is now.
“Each song contains things that are in my locket that I carry around with me,” she says.
Nostalgia runs deep in Beer’s new music. She wanted to return to the pop sound of her early releases and looked toward early favorites including Ariana Grande, SZA, and Gwen Stefani for inspiration. But Locket’s pop return comes with a growing confidence in her talent, thanks to successful experimentations with her sound and lyricism on recent releases like 2023’s more introspective Silence Between Songs.
“[Silence] really was a definitive moment for me because I was nervous about releasing an album that was extremely personal and very lyrically driven with more acoustic, slower stuff,” she says. “It really wasn’t a pop album at all. I was scared because I was like, ‘Is this not what people want from me?’ And then I was like, ‘This is what I want, and this feels really good to me. So why don’t I just do it?’”
Fans were more than accepting of her new direction. At the shows, they sang back every word, even for deeper album cuts like “Nothing Matters But You.” Before going on tour, however, she wanted to make a big dance-pop moment to keep the energy high at the shows. So she took another detour, crafting the delicious EDM-pop moment “Make You Mine” as a one-off single. It was so well-received that it was nominated for Best Dance Pop Recording at the 2025 Grammy Awards.
“It truly was made just for the tour,” she says. “I didn’t have any expectations for that song other than for my fans who are already attending my tour.” After the song’s success, she crafted two more big dance-pop moments in the vein of “Make You Mine,” including “15 Minutes” and Locket lead single “Yes Baby.”
“‘Yes Baby’ is kind of the finale of that,” Beer says. “Not the finale in the sense of me never going to make another dance song again, but I close that [chapter] for now. I’m returning a little more to my roots.”
The songs from Locket don’t lose the energy of her dance-pop period, even if they don’t go as maximalist as those tracks. Beer returned to the studio with some of her frequent collaborators, including Tim “One Love” Sommers, who worked on her debut EP As She Pleases when Beer was 18 and just getting started.
“I’ve been working with these people for so long, so it’s been really cool for us all to really grow together,” she adds”.
There are a couple of other interviews to cross off before wrapping up. Cosmopolitan published a really detailed and long interview with Madison Beer from August. At a time when locket was still being recorded and there was still some uncertainty about exactly when it was coming out, Madison Beer discussed working on the album and, among other things, her relationship with asocial, media and the press. I cannot imagine how tough it is at time being this high-profile artist on social media. A lot of expectations and criticisms. How the press actually seemed to want to drive her out of music or were putting this pressure on her. How they bullied her. It is another revealing and really honest interview:
“We’re speaking right in the middle of your creative process. How’s it been going?
There’s no clocking in and out of the job. The other day, I broke down out of nowhere. I was working with this songwriter I’ve always wanted to work with and my entire arm started going numb, the side of my head started going numb. I just lost a friend to a brain aneurysm. So I’m thinking I’m having one, straight-up, and I’m freaking out internally. She asked me, “Are you okay?” I burst into tears. I had just met her an hour before. I ended up taking the weekend to do nothing. I was like, I want to sit in my room, watch stupid movies, play Fortnite, go in my Jacuzzi, drink a beer. Everyone can fuck off, leave me alone.
Your body was telling you something.
I’m not doing anyone a favour by burning myself out. Why does it have to get to the point of me having a panic attack? It shouldn’t, but I’m trying to snap out of it.
What’s your main goal with this new music?
I have the highest goals. This is hopefully what solidifies everything for me, whatever that means. That’s why it’s been hard to make — there’s a lot of pressure I’m putting on myself. So it’s taking me a second, but it feels exciting. I don’t want to succeed if it means not being who I am. I don’t need people to love me. And I don’t want people to listen to my music if it’s not real.
And then I’m simultaneously trying not to have a panic attack thinking about if everything goes super well, what my life will look like. Because that scares me, which is something I’m trying to be honest with myself about. When you work your whole life toward something and then it’s right there, it’s like, “Do I want it though?”
PHOTO CREDIT: Hearst
Something that really stands out to me is how you have a lot of compassion toward your younger self and also a genuine understanding that the adults in your life could have done better. And how you’re willing to speak publicly on all of this. Has this prompted any confrontations?
The boy who the whole nude situation happened with,3 he reached out to me and was like, “I had no idea that I hurt you like this. I’m so sorry.” I don’t know how it feels to be a 14-year-old boy receiving photos of a girl. Maybe it’s wishful thinking, but I don’t think he was being malicious showing them to his friends. He was a kid.
I’ve had to sit people down and be like, “Hey, you owe me an apology for what you did to me when I was a kid.” And a lot of the other people from that time in my life — I just have completely severed my relationships with. I don’t care to make up with you or be cool with you.
What about your relationship with the press?
I’ve been bullied a lot. They sometimes do interviews with me just to make fun of me. People around me used to tell me “Shhh, don’t speak back, don’t stand up for yourself.” But I’m at this place now where I will happily be like, “What the fuck are you saying?” if that’s how I feel. And who I am is someone who does stand up for themselves — someone who can be a bitch, if that’s what you deem it as.
And what about social media? Your digital footprint across platforms is huge.
If I could have a perfect world, I would not be on social media at all. I don’t think there’s any way to accurately depict yourself online. I’m so conditioned to everything I say and do on the internet being twisted. Though I do, unfortunately, scroll TikTok for hours on end. I want to delete it but I’d lose all my drafts. I don’t have Twitter on my phone anymore. I’m not going to die on this hill begging all of you to see me when you are clearly committed to misunderstanding me. I do miss my fans who are on there though —I used to talk to them on Twitter all the time.
Where does your self-worth come from?
To be so honest with you, a lot of my self-worth is based on the way I look. I’m trying to change that, but it’s so deep-rooted. It’s been ingrained in me since I was young because of people focusing on superficial bullshit. Unfortunately, that’s manifested itself into a place where if I’m breaking out or I’ve gained five pounds or I don’t feel pretty, I don’t feel like I’m worth anything.
Do you think he’s ready for whatever this next career moment could hold for you?
No, neither of us are equipped for whatever the fuck might come. But it’s kind of exciting to be like, “We’re going to figure all this out, hopefully together.” Yes, I know he’s going to support me, but do I think that he knows or I know or my parents know or my brother knows how we’re going to feel or go through it if and when that does happen? No.
But in terms of certain other people, don’t think that if and hopefully when this album goes crazy, I’m not going to be like, “You didn’t give me the time of fucking day and now you want to be my best friend. Goodbye. Get out of my face, genuinely”.
PHOTO CREDIT: Morgan Maher
I am going to end up with PAPER and a great discussion with Madison Beer. This was published in September and was released to coincide with the release of yes baby. One of Beer’s best tracks, I wanted to include parts of the interview here, as it is a song that struck me when I first heard it. I am excited to hear the rest of locket. She is such a strong and amazing person. Her music, interviews and writing has helped so many people. The fact she is so real with her fans is refreshing and important. However, you do hope there is a time she can detach from social media and live a less visible life:
“Last time I talked to you was last year when you released "15 Minutes." Take me through the timeline of what you've been up to since then, and what led to this new song coming up?
Obviously there's a lot that I would love to talk about regarding the album, because it is all tethered to the project. I know I haven't announced it yet, but my fans know that this is part of an album, and this is the first song kicking it off. From touring, I've learned a lot about which songs feel good to perform, what I like, what I don't like. "yes Baby" felt like the right way to start this all. In my head, it looked like closing out a little bit of the EDM dance stuff — not that I'll never do more, maybe even on the deluxe — but I wanted there to be a new dance song people could connect to. It's not a representation of the whole project, but I felt like it tied in with "Make You Mine" and "15 Minutes" before moving into album world.
I love that idea of a trio: "Make You Mine," "15 Minutes," and now "Yes Baby." What's your relationship with your fans nowadays?
I got off Twitter a couple months ago, which I'd never done since I started. It was negatively impacting my ability to see my artistic direction clearly. I really value their opinions, but when there are too many cooks in the kitchen, I get overwhelmed. I was second-guessing myself constantly. Deleting Twitter has actually helped me feel more connected, not less. I do IG Lives on my mbhq account and it feels like the same old — we just talk, and it feels like family. Honestly, I feel closest to them on tour, but not reading the constant discourse has made my decisions for this project really my own.
Tell me about the making of "yes baby." I feel like I'm in Ibiza listening to it. Where did you pull inspo from?
We made it right after I got off tour. I was so geeked up on performing "Make You Mine." Every night when that intro came on, people would lose their minds. It tapped into a different part of my performing brain. I'm a singer first, but with songs like "Make You Mine" or "Yes Baby," it's more about performing, jumping, running around. On tour, those moments felt like the club. With "Yes Baby," obviously the phrase is sexual, but I also picture people snapping for their friends and going, "Yes, baby!" I imagine my fans doing that back at me. It's just a fun, affirmational song inspired by the tour energy.
Do you ever feel like people disregard how good a singer you are?
I'm at a really good place with that now. I don't feel the need to prove myself to people who aren't paying attention. I know that when people come to my shows, they leave knowing I'm a singer. I used to get upset about it, but it's a personal opinion. People can think I'm a bad singer all they want — I'd rather that than them not think I'm a singer at all. I know I'm a singer, my fans know it. If you don't, come to a show. The mic will be on.
A lot of pop girls are coming back with dance and club vibes. Were you conscious of that when releasing this song?
Not really. With "Make You Mine," it was completely organic. With "Yes Baby," it wasn't about following a trend. My album isn't really a dance album — it's a straightforward pop record. If I were chasing the trend, I'd make a full dance album, but that would feel alienating. I like too many different genres. I just love making fun songs you can play while getting ready, feeling sexy, and having fun”.
I have so much respect and love for Madison Beer. I have been following her for a while, and I know howe much locket means to her and how much of herself she has put into it. In terms of your dates for locket, I do hope that she comes to the U.K. I will try and see her if she plays in London, as there will be so many people who are keen to see her on the stage and talk to her. For anyone who is new to Madison Beer, go back and listen to her previous albums and listen to interviews with her, as she is authentic, compelling, hugely intelligent and someone whose honesty and bravery is quite rare when major Pop artists are expected to be guarded or filter themselves carefully. I hope that this year offers personal happiness, positivity and success for Madison Beer. There are few artists who deserve it…
MORE than her.
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