Eurovision star Mae Muller has confessed she’s on the verge of quitting music, after admitting she’s had ‘all the joy and fun sucked out’ of her career.
The singer, 28, previously represented the UK at the song contest in 2023, but finished in 25th place with just 24 points.
Despite releasing music since, Mae has taken to TikTok to admit she is ‘miserable,’ and has been struggling to find the motivation to continue.
Mae previously split from her record label and management after her disappointing Eurovision result, and cancelling her tour.
She shared the video with the on-screen text: ‘Trigger warning: me being vulnerable.’
Mae said: ‘I’m just gonna be vulnerable for a second because you guys are my close friends, this is literally my close friends.
Eurovision star Mae Muller has confessed she’s on the verge of quitting music, after admitting she’s had ‘all the joy and fun sucked out’ of her career
‘This music thing, I need you guys to tell me not to quit because why is it so hard.
‘I feel like I’ve been doing it for so long now and I just feel like all the joy and fun has been sucked out and it’s kind of making me miserable.’
‘I don’t know guys, I need you guys to remind me why I like doing this cos I absolutely love ya’ll, I love you, I love making music, I love performing, I love everything about it but I just feel like what it’s turned into, I don’t know if I have it in me guys.
‘I do have it in me but I’m getting to the end of my tether and I don’t wanna be miserable, I wanna be happy. Tell me not to quit.
‘I don’t wanna quit on you guys, but it’s testing my last nerve, I can’t.’
She captioned the post: ‘Like can I just be a songwriter atp girl I’m tiiiiiiired.’
Many of Mae’s fans urged her to keep pushing with her career, and not to quit music, writing: ‘Genuinely please don’t quit. It’s not all about being the biggest star, you can successfully be a fab niche artist. There are so many amazing divas out there killing it!’
‘Never quit but take breaks when needed. You’re such a talented icon and the world deserves to hear you serve it;’
‘Don’t you dare quit… girl I need your music to live honestly. Maybe take a break, look after yourself first always. We will all understand;’
‘Don’t quit!! We know you still have so much incredible new music to hear!’
‘Please please PLEASE don’t quit girl!! You really found your sound, I love your new stuff;’
Aside from Sam Ryder’s romp to second place in 2022, the UK’s poor streak at Eurovision continued on Saturday, with LOOK MUM NO COMPUTER finishing in last place in Vienna, after earning zero points from the public vote.
Sam’s electric performance saw him dancing around in a mock workshop while playing a synthesiser and surrounded by fur-clad robots, while singing about his desire to quit his job and move to Germany.
But his quirky act failed to impress both abroad and back home, with British viewers blasting the song as ‘the worst I’ve ever heard’.
Many have insisted that the UK has long failed to take the contest seriously, despite its long musical history and having produced some of the world’s biggest artists.
But it has been pointed out that well-established acts rarely agree to take part in the competition as it is seen to be ‘career suicide’.
The singer previously represented the UK at the song contest in 2023, but finished in 25th place with just 24 points
Months after her Eurovision stint fell short, Mae threw shade at her former record label while revealing that she had taken a break after ‘the most intense year of her life’ to rediscover who she was as an artist.
In a TikTok post, she opened up on her decision to go independent, saying she had ‘lost her identity and passion for music’.
She also admitted that she had been hesitant about doing Eurovision last year, but that her label and management had suggested she ‘couldn’t afford to say no’.
Mae competed in the song contest in Liverpool in May 2023 with her track I Wrote A Song, but ended up coming second from last.
Mae explained that she felt she was only producing music to get hits and had ‘lost sight of what I was doing this for’.
She also added that the pressure had caused her to ‘make decisions which didn’t sit well in my gut personally or creatively.’
The week after her statement, Mae took to her TikTok to reveal that she had left her record label, Capitol Records UK, and her management company after five years.
She made a subtle dig at the corporations, writing: ‘Deciding to leave my management and record label to shed a new skin and make music I actually like x’.
Mae then released a lengthy video on TikTok, where she opened up on her reasons to leave, accusing both companies of ‘panicking’ after the pandemic and taking her career in a different direction from what she had wanted.
She said: ‘I started out in the business writing songs at 19, working in a pub and basically got signed off the back of that. The first year, I did headline shows, I supported Little Mix on their arena tour around the UK and went on my own headline tour after that.
‘It was going swimmingly and then Covid hit. I think from that point on my label just kind of absolutely panicked. And my management panicked too if I’m honest. This is no shade to them by the way, I still have so much love for everyone I worked with on the way and I still talk to them, but they panicked.
‘And I went from being a singer-songwriter who wrote all her own stuff to suddenly being put on these big dance features and super pop songs that I didn’t write just to get me onto radio or to get a hit.’
Mae confessed: ‘That’s kind of what it felt like and I completely lost my identity and I lost my passion for music because all I ever wanted to do was write songs and play shows and both of those things kind of got taken away.
‘All for good intentions, I think everyone thought they were doing the right thing but I don’t think it really was good for me in the end.’
Mae spoke about how the label pushed her to do her hit song Better Days, but that its huge success made her more ‘confused’ because the track was not ‘who I am as an artist’.
She then opened up about her Eurovision experience, saying that while it gave her fame, it caused her to lose her ‘authenticity’, while in another video she described competing on the show as ‘pretty traumatic, but we got through it’.
She said: ‘And then Eurovision came round and I was a bit unsure if I wanted to do it because I didn’t know if it was really me.
‘But when you have two huge corporations like my management company and my label, basically saying, ‘We think this is the right thing to do’, you kind of go ‘Maybe I can’t afford to say no to this’.
Mae went on: ‘Did Eurovision. Did wonders for my profile but as an artist and a songwriter who just wanted to perform and write and just be authentic, it kind of did the opposite.
‘And I just found myself in the space of like, ‘Am I just going to be this person that just hops on a dance feature now and then and gets a quick cheque and can perform at Jingle Bell Ball every other year? Or do I need to go back to basics and just start afresh.’
‘And that thought was really scary because I’ve been with a major label for like five years and I’ve been with my management company for like five years.
‘So the idea of leaving all that was really scary but I had to be really honest with myself and go, ‘Do you know what? This is not benefitting you anymore and even though the people around you thought they were doing what is right for you, they actually aren’t doing what’s right for you’.’
Mae explained: ‘So I made the scary decision of leaving. So I am now independent. I’m going to start getting in the studio and get back to being me. Get back to being Mae Muller.
‘Who knows what it’s going to bring but it’s going to bring authenticity and I know that I’m never going to have to do something I don’t want to do ever again.
‘It’s scary but I’m excited and I just ask that you’re patient with me. Finding my vibe again and falling back into love with my passion for music and we’ll see what happens!’
Mae released her debut album, Sorry It’s Late, in September last year, which received mostly positive reviews and peaked at 33 on the UK charts.
The Sun claimed that Mae and her label had split because they had differing ideas about the best direction for her music.
An insider told the publication: ‘Everyone hoped that Eurovision would be the thing to propel Mae into the mainstream and make her a big star. It certainly raised her profile — but not for all the right reasons and it has been a very tricky year for everyone involved.
‘The label really tried to support her with her album but she struggled to muster up a hardcore fanbase and had to cancel her tour in the autumn because the demand wasn’t there.
‘She feels like she compromised her artistic integrity for the label. But they feel like they did everything they could to turn her into a star, so it became clear the time was right for Mae to leave the label.’
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