MAIH’S ‘RIVERS’ IS A SOARING SOUNDTRACK TO LETTING GO

11 minutes ago
2 min read

There’s something about the opening of MAIH’s new single, Rivers, that makes the world feel a little bigger. Atmospheric and cinematic, it arrives with the feeling of standing at the top of a mountain, looking out across an endless ocean. It’s expansive, emotional and just a little bit overwhelming...the kind of song that makes you want to roll the car windows down, sing at full volume and not care who’s listening.

For Norwegian singer and songwriter Martine Haaland, better known as MAIH, music has been part of her life for as long as she can remember. Growing up in a musical family, she was taken on tour by her father from a young age before eventually finding her own way into songwriting. Piano lessons began at eight, but it was writing her own songs that really captured her imagination. At 13, she turned a poem about feeling excluded at school into her first song, discovering an outlet for experiences that would continue to shape her relationship with music.

That instinct for storytelling has remained at the heart of MAIH. After moving to Bergen to form a band, studying at LIMPI and working alongside writers and producers including Emily Warren and Stargate, she began carving out her own space as both an artist and songwriter. Her 2024 debut EP, For All of The Times I Broke My Own Heart, brought her music to a wider audience, earning Spotify Fresh Finds and EQUAL placements, alongside national radio support. Now, with new music created alongside Norwegian producer Brage André Abrahamsen, MAIH is entering another chapter.

Rivers feels like a fitting introduction to it. There’s a heaviness that arrives once the beat enters. “Did you figure it out with the girl or is it all said and done?” she asks, before the frustration cuts deeper: “I was everything but her, you don’t care how much it hurts.” It’s the familiar ache of giving someone everything and somehow still feeling like it wasn’t enough. Then comes the chorus, and everything opens up again. “For you I was the ocean, it wasn’t enough / You wanted to go and swim in the river.”

It’s a beautifully simple image for the kind of heartbreak that leaves you questioning your own worth. You can give someone everything you have and still discover that they were looking for something else. The ocean is vast, but sometimes even that isn’t enough for someone who has already decided they want the river.

What makes Rivers particularly affecting, though, is the contrast between its sound and its subject matter. There’s sadness in the lyrics, but the music feels hopeful. Rather than sinking into the heartbreak, the production seems to lift it upwards - cinematic, soaring and ultimately freeing.

Perhaps that’s MAIH’s way of telling us that she knows she’ll be okay. And, honestly, I’ve always preferred the ocean anyway.