Mae Stephens told her followers a few weeks back that she thought she’d written the delulu song of the summer. Having heard ‘Delusional,’ it’s hard to argue with her. The new single is out now, the video is up, and it does exactly what it says on the tin — pure pop fun, a sweet piano melody, swooping vocal harmonies stacked with care, and an earworm of a chorus that burrows in and refuses to leave.
She wrote the track with producer and solo artist OSKI, and by her own account they did it on less than an hour of sleep — which, fittingly, makes the whole thing feel a little delirious in the best possible way. The song is about that specific kind of infatuation that only makes sense from the inside, the point where you’re so consumed by someone that you’ve long since crossed into delusional territory without quite clocking it. Mae doesn’t shy away from how far that goes — obsession, denial, and what she describes as heavy themes of stalking surface in the second verse, handled with the kind of self-aware wit that keeps it from tipping into anything other than great pop songwriting.
“The song is about being so infatuated by someone that you would stoop to delusional levels to gain their affection,” she said. “I had so much fun creating this track and definitely feel that it pulled me out of my comfort zone on the songwriting side. OSKI has an incredible ear for harmonies and played a massive hand in creating each layer of the incredible chorus and backing vocals.”
The video is worth your time too. Mae’s performance is magnetic throughout, set in a Technicolour alternate reality that the press release compares to the B*Witched ‘C’est La Vie’ aesthetic — a neat visual metaphor for someone who’s drifted some distance from reality. You can’t take your eyes off her.
‘Delusional’ arrives at a moment when Mae’s live presence is matching the online one. Recent weeks have seen her wrap a packed headline tour, make a special guest appearance at G-A-Y, and play the first UK edition of the Anti Social Camp showcase. She’s also been adding to a run of singles that spans funk-heavy empowerment (‘Woah Man!’), intrusive thoughts (‘Tiny Voice’), self-respect (‘Done With U’), and a Motown-tinged heartache piece (‘Blue’) that earned her a performance for the Grammy Awards’ Global Spin initiative.
All of it builds on a backstory that still feels almost too good to be true — from working at ASDA to international number ones, Gold certifications, and over 400 million streams on breakthrough hit ‘If We Ever Broke Up,’ and on to sharing stages with BLACKPINK, P!NK, Meghan Trainor, The Chainsmokers, Tom Grennan and Alok. The momentum has never felt more real than it does right now.
She’s also just announced a UK headline tour this November — details on that here.
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