Madison Beer talks forging her own path to pop stardom originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
For more than a decade, Madison Beer has grown up in public. Now 26, the singer is stepping into a new chapter with her third studio album, Locket, a project that underscores just how hands-on she has become in shaping her own career.
Beer first gained attention in 2012, when she began posting cover songs to YouTube from her home on Long Island. Inspired by the late Christina Grimmie, Beer—who is dating Los Angeles Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert—credits the fellow singer for giving her the confidence to upload that first video. “I literally owe my life to her,” Beer said in a new interview with Who What Where. “I wouldn’t have posted that YouTube cover if I wasn’t inspired by her.” Shortly after, Justin Bieber shared one of her covers, sending her into the spotlight and leading to a deal with Island Records.
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Since then, she has navigated the industry largely on her own terms. With Locket, released in mid-January, she served as a co-writer on every track and also took on a co-producer role. The album blends soft, atmospheric production with sharper, more confident pop moments, reflecting the push and pull between vulnerability and self-assurance that runs throughout her catalog.
“Trust is a big thing for me,” Beer explained when discussing her creative process. “And it’s hard sometimes to go into a room with writers you’ve never met and sit down and be like, ‘Here’s all my trauma. Let’s write a song about it.’” Instead, she leaned on longtime collaborators, allowing the record to evolve organically. “When I started it, I had no idea where I was headed,” she said. “The beginning feels really slow, and then once it starts working, it’s just go, go, go.”
That openness is especially evident on the album’s ballads. While working on “You’re Still Everything,” Beer tapped into a deeply personal place. “I wrote that song in a really vulnerable state,” she shared. “The line ‘I only exist in the moments you’re talking to me’ is literally about feeling like I don’t have a reason to be here if we’re not talking.”
The results are beginning to show in new ways. Locket debuted at No. 10 on the Billboard 200, and the single “Bittersweet” marked her first appearance on the Billboard Hot 100, entering at No. 98. Even with those milestones, Beer says she no longer ties her self-worth to chart numbers. “I’m proud of the music with or without it,” she noted.
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As she prepares for The Locket Tour, which launches in May and includes a stop at Madison Square Garden, Beer is balancing ambition with perspective. “When I perform at Madison Square Garden, I’m gonna probably shit myself twice,” she joked. “That’s just been my dream for forever.”