“If We Ever Broke Up sparkles with promise. Lyrically finessed, Mae Stephens works with a confidence that belies her teenage years – and the chorus is an incredible ear-worm, too” – Clash Magazine
‘If We Ever Broke Up’, is the infectious, attitude-filled, alt-pop bop from 19-year-old Kettering musician Mae Stephens.
Today Mae releases the video for the track, a fun-filled, comical play on what she’d do if she ever broke up with her boyfriend. Alongside the release, she’s also shared the high-octane remix of the track by rising drum and bass producer Goddard.
The perfect kiss-off to an ex, ‘If We Ever Broke Up’ has garnered over 58 million streams to date, peaked at #18 in the UK singles chart, and is currently sitting in every single Spotify viral chart around the world.
Mae shared a snippet of the track online on New Years’ Eve and woke up on January 1st to find her song blowing up globally online. Just before this, Mae was finding solace and sanctuary in her music-making between working shifts at her local Asda. A songwriter since the tender age of 12, she’d used music to guide her through the hardships of teenage life, pouring her heart out in emotional, impactful songs penned on her nan’s old piano.
“I used to be quite angry as a kid and I had a lot of pent-up tension, especially coming home from school,” she explains. “I tried so much to find what was going to help me release all of that – stuff like judo, skiing, biking. I tried so many things until it came to song writing. Just being able to sit, close the door, not have anyone around me and just have some space to think and let my emotions out into something creative was probably the one thing that really got me through school, other than my brother.”
The target of cruel bullying, Mae’s school years were far from easy, with her being picked on for being the “loud, quirky kid”. When her classmates found the YouTube channel, she uploaded her original songs and covers on, every video she shared would prompt more hate and spitefulness to be sent her way. Pushing through the nastiness with the help of her music and her brother, she was “determined to push forward and prove a lot of people wrong”.
Now, in Mae Stephens, Gen Z has found a new champion – an artist ready to use her voice to help others and provide the same kind of sanctuary in her music that it gave her while making it, “A lot of kids are probably going through stuff that’s a lot worse than what I went through and it’s not highlighted as much as it should be,” she says. “To watch kids go through that and not have someone to look up to is something I really hope I can help with. I want to be the champion of the underdogs – Mae’s misfits.”