When Madison Beer co-wrote her pop radio hit “Home With You,” the 19-year-old singer likely had her own demographic in mind (sample lyrics: “I do what I wanna-wanna do/ And I’m not going home with you, home with you”). But it turns out the female-empowerment anthem doesn’t have an age limit.
“We did a show the other day, and there were these little girls who couldn’t be older than 7 singing every word to this song,” Beer told Billboard‘s Pop Shop Podcast about the song — her first Pop Songs airplay chart hit, which has so far peaked at No. 22. “And I stopped at the end and was like, ‘You guys are amazing. I just want you to know: Those lyrics mean a lot, and one day, maybe not yet, but one day I hope that you really use them and remember for the rest of your life that you don’t have to do anything you don’t want.'”
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Beer has been proving that her whole career. She vaulted into the spotlight at age 13 thanks to her YouTube covers getting noticed by Justin Bieber and manager Scooter Braun, but she’s taken her time releasing official music, with the independent artist dropping her debut EP, As She Pleases, back in February. So why the wait? “I was 13 years old,” she says. “I feel like I didn’t have a sense of artistry and I didn’t have a sense of the music that I wanted to make, and every time I’d go into the studio and I’d make my EP, a month later I’d scrap it and be like, ‘I hate every song, I don’t wanna do it.’ Because that’s how 13-year-olds are. So I just thought it was better to take my time with it and really learn who I was before putting myself out into the world in the way that I did.”
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After years in the spotlight, she was ready to take control of her own narrative, instead of the social-media machine deciding who she is based on public relationships and rumors. “I have a very intrusive life, I guess you could say. I think that a lot of people know too much about me, truthfully,” she says. “So for me to have some ounce of control over the way people perceive me, that was a really fulfilling thing. And I was like, ‘You know what? I’m gonna wait until I feel really confident in this.’ And it ended up being [that] the EP was really something for me to communicate to the world who I really was. Because I think there’s a lot of misconceptions of who I am and what I’m about and the things I like out there that I get judged on social media or whatever, so I really wanted to take that opportunity to be like, ‘This is the kind of music I’m into.’ I hope you listen to my EP and say, ‘OK, I think I know Madison Beer a little bit.'”
That seven-song EP is just the beginning. Beer has plans for a debut album in the near future (“I’m probably like six, seven songs deep, so I’m almost there, but I really want it to be perfect”) and she hopes to write or co-write every song on the project (“I want to have at least a little bit of my name on it”). And it sounds like we’ll get a taste of that new music sooner than later. “I have a single coming out really soon that I’m super, super excited about,” she says. “It’s probably my most favorite one yet. It’s super strong. It’s again with the same kind of message of being badass and being yourself.”
She also has a new song out with David Guetta, from his latest album, 7, released last month. “I didn’t really think the song was gonna make the album because I figured maybe I’m just one of the people who’s recording it and not gonna get on it,” she says of their collaboration on “Blame It on Love.” “And then once we found out that it was actually gonna be on the album and that he loved working with me, it was really, really cool.”
Also on the show, Keith & Katie talk about chart moves for the A Star Is Born soundtrack, Twenty One Pilots, Steve Perry and more, plus headlines about the Fleetwood Mac lawsuit, Quavo’s first solo album (complete with a Madonna feature!) and Ariana Grande and Pete Davidson’s broken engagement.
The Billboard Pop Shop Podcast is your one-stop shop for all things pop on Billboard‘s weekly charts. You can always count on a lively discussion about the latest pop news, fun chart stats and stories, new music, and guest interviews with music stars and folks from the world of pop. Casual pop fans and chart junkies can hear Billboard‘s senior director of charts Keith Caulfield and deputy editor, digital Katie Atkinson every week on the podcast, which can be streamed on Billboard.com or downloaded in Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast provider. (Click here to listen to the previous Tuesday’s edition of the show on Billboard.com.)
Listen above and click here to subscribe/rate the Pop Shop Podcast on iTunes.