With 1.5 billion Spotify streams, 1+billion views on Youtube and over 22 million followers on Instagram, this 21-year-old is no ‘up and comer’.

Madison first tasted fame when Justin Bieber scouted her online aged 12, but it was the independent years of her teenhood that followed which went on to form the building blocks of this young woman’s talented force. Navigating the music industry and fast fame on her own so young was no easy feat, and yet she’s proving everyone who ever doubted her wrong with her debut album Life Support. Remix editor Amber Baker caught up with the powerful voice to discuss wearing her heart on her sleeve, breakup songs and how her biggest fan became her best friend…

2021 is going to be massive for you. With Life Support finally out how do you feel about listeners hearing an album that has been years in the making?

I feel amazing. I’m so excited. And I’m very grateful that it’s finally coming out. It’s been like over a year in the making. So it feels like I’ve been pregnant for a year and a half with this baby!

It’s ironic that your album release on Feb 26 was exactly the nine-year anniversary of when you launched your YouTube page. That’s pretty much what started your whole career, right?

Yeah, which is so crazy. We didn’t even plan that. It was merely a coincidence! But, it’s super cool and it’s a very, full-circle moment for me. YouTube is where I got my start so it feels really good.

Our team listened to the entire album and we love it all. My favourite track is Interlude Song…

That one’s really beautiful. That’s one of the oldest tracks on the album, we made that one night randomly, I just got on the vocoder and was like, let me just sing some stuff. It was just a freestyle!

What’s your favourite track on the album?’

It changes a lot. I’ve had a lot of time with it, I’ve been able to sit with it. So it changes all the time. But, I would probably say, Homesick and Effortlessly are my number ones right now. But you know, when I first made it, it was Defaulted, it just changes all the time. They’re all so special to me for so many different reasons.

Throughout the album, I heard hints of Lana Del Rey and Sia and kind of like this electronic rock feel, how do you navigate so many types of vocals in one album?

I don’t know. I think it’s kind of just like an accurate depiction of what I like. I listen to so many different types of music, so many different covers and songs. I did a cover of a Lana song on tour, and I also did a cover of a RadioHead song on tour. So that kind of shows you that I like all different types of music, sound, everything. I really wanted my album to just feel like me and feel really honestly like these are the things that I listen to, these are the types of songs I want to be creating. I’m glad that that translated.

It definitely did. It feels a little bit like a breakup album…

Yeah, so initially when we were starting it, it was definitely a breakup album. That was the only real main talking point, I guess, like at the very beginning. And then once we started the writing I started talking about things that were deeper and things that were a little bit more personal, not as simple. So I kind of realized I shouldn’t be reducing myself just to a breakup album. There are obvious songs about my breakup but, everything happens for a reason. The last song on the album, that song has to do with my breakup, but also has to do with me and how I went through a really hard time. I tried to reduce it into not just a breakup album because it’s so much more than that.