Hannah Mae announces a musical double blow. The singer from Nieuw-Weerdinge has released a new song and will perform at the Afas Live in Amsterdam on March 27 next year.
In exactly a year she will give her biggest concert yet. “It’s really bizarre that I can fill such a large hall in Amsterdam,” Mae beams in the Radio Drenthe broadcast.
A few years ago, she was still a shy girl with a guitar on her back in a small tent at the back of the Hello Festival site in Emmen. She never dared to dream that her musical career would take off like this. “It’s special, but I just try to be myself.”
She wants to connect people with her music. “And I hope that when people come to my shows or hear my songs, they can forget their worries for a moment. That’s what I do it for.”
With the same approach, Hannah Mae surprised today with the release of her song I’m not afraid anymorea duet with the Zeeland band BLØF. The song is about the safety and security you can feel with someone, Mae explains. “If you are having a bad day, that person will take you into his or her bubble and you can forget all your worries for a while.”
The song sat on the shelf gathering dust for almost a year, until the singer ‘bløft’ it together with BLØF bassist Peter Slager. “Initially we were going to write a song for me alone, but while we were at it I thought: that second voice underneath is very beautiful,” says Mae.
She took the plunge and sent Slager a message that she would like to get BLØF frontman Paskal Jakobsen on the record. “But Peter had already forwarded it to the rest of the band and they were very enthusiastic. And now we are here.”
Mae thus joins an illustrious list of female artists who produced a duet with the Zeeland band, just like Geike Arnaert previously on Zoutelande. “That’s really nice.”
After today, the singer from Emmen still has a year to prepare for perhaps her biggest musical challenge to date, with her show at the Afas. “I have already looked up inspirational videos of other people who were in the Afas, but I have no idea yet what everything will look like,” she says.
What is already certain is that it will be an evening you will not soon forget. “And of course I hope that all Drenthe people will come and turn Amsterdam upside down,” Mae concludes. “I would find that very nice.”
