The Under 1M Spotlight for this week is Maya Manuela, an artist with an impressive 177K listeners on Spotify! Today we will be focusing on her most popular song, “multiverse,” with about 12 million streams.
“Multiverse” opens with an echoing acoustic guitar with open chords. The beginning lyrics set the scene for a difficult conversation between two people in a relationship. She thinks of a place where their relationship is easy, some other life where they get along and don’t argue. She imagines that somewhere in the multiverse there is a version of them that doesn’t hurt each other. She knows that is not the version she lives with, but she is at peace knowing that maybe it lives somewhere. The bridge gives reassurance on both sides that wanting that version doesn’t mean the other person has to change. In the outro, a male voice weighs in, repeating “Somewhere in the multiverse / There’s a you and me that work,” confirming that they both feel the same way but accept that the version they live with doesn’t work.
Moving on to Maya’s latest album, American Doll, we narrow in on track one, “LAURA.” This track is what originally caught my attention for Maya, with that retro-summer sound that is completely different from “multiverse.” It opens up with a funky guitar that pops as Maya describes a woman who truly knows who she is, radiating confidence and grabbing subtle attention from people. Maya describes that this woman has never wavered in her confidence, with an echoing crowd behind this verse OOOing and Aahhhing about her. The narration is transparent about her struggles, like her brokenness, but kind of makes it seem okay because one day she will be famous and “on top.” Closing out with the repetition of “She’s been runnin’,” accompanied by that funky pop sound, leaves us wondering where she will go next.
Maya Manuela is about to go viral, and we said it first. Stream her music and keep an eye out for new stuff!
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