with videoThe clip for the first new song by Maan de Steenwinkel (27) after a much-discussed period of silence became one of the most trending music videos on YouTube within a day. The footage shows dark hands squeezing her throat as she sings that she is trapped and screams that she is going crazy. What is this song about?
Maan had just completed a highlight in her career last summer when she almost completely disappeared from publicity. She performed with the renowned Metropole Orchestra in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, shortly after she performed for 17,000 people in the Ziggo Dome. Things had gone fast for the artist, who a few years ago was still performing in small halls for 300 fans. Too hard perhaps, it seemed.
She gave a few more small performances in the autumn, but otherwise it became almost silent. Gossip vlogger Yvonne Coldeweijer speculated about a burnout and alleged drug use, but according to Maan’s management this was not true. “Things are better than ever,” Maan assured her fans last month. She will remain off stage for the time being, to return later with new music.
‘A net full of fear’
She has ‘rediscovered herself’, she explained. ‘Who am I again when no one is looking?’ Maan asked herself the question, she described this week Vogue. She concluded, among other things, that she has ‘outgrown’ her old music. The result is the song Paranoia, which she wrote with her friend Karel Gerlach from Goldband. The text and clip, viewed more than 52,000 times since its launch on Thursday and trending on YouTube, are oppressive.
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Maan calls himself a ‘devil’s puppet’ and ‘caught in a net of fear and corruption’. “I’m going crazy,” she screams. In the video, hands in dark gloves grab her by the throat, just as she is in the spotlight. It’s that she laughs in one shot, otherwise the scene would have looked very dark.
Affair and relationships
The song is about Maan’s ‘love-hate relationship with the spotlight’, she reports on Instagram. ‘And what I can feel when I walk out the door, my antennae turn on.’ It is not without reason that all press cameras and microphones are aimed at her in the clip. Maan may be one of the most successful artists in the Netherlands, but much of the media attention for her is not about the music.
There were rumors about an affair with Marco Borsato, a failed relationship with DJ Tony Junior and in recent years a lot of attention was paid to her relationship with Gerlach, with stories about a so-called break-up at the moment. Even if half of it were made up, that wouldn’t be easy for anyone.
The song is therefore also about ‘letting the bullshit be the bullshit’ and a ‘focus on what matters’. ‘Sometimes it’s difficult and sometimes it works,’ says Maan. ‘Writing from me helps. Hereby!’ So the clip is a success, the song itself still seems to have to get going. Paranoia is not yet in the top 50 most streamed songs on Spotify.
Watch the clip of Paranoia:
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