“I always knew what I wanted,” Indianapolis-born, LA-based singer MAETA tells me over Zoom. On the other side of the screen, a five-person entourage, her hand-picked support crew from America and England, hovers in the background. But once our conversation starts, her self-sufficiency takes centre stage. Maeta doesn’t play pretend; she’s assertive and fiercely driven, embodying the word “star” as an innate quality, not an industry-granted stamp. “I’ve been singing since I was a baby,” the 23-year-old continues. “I know every singer says that, but seriously, I have. I always knew I wanted to be a singer, and I never had a ‘Plan B.’ I don’t believe in ‘Plan Bs’ anyway – so thank God it’s working out.”

With her feet firmly planted in R&B grounds as one of the most prominent up-and-coming voices to watch, celestial assistance now seems like a mere footnote. But her steadfast avoidance of life’s alternative paths since her early days is not only what transformed her into the ultimate go-getter – it ensured she never doubted her career in music for a second. “I think if people have a Plan B, you’re giving the universe another option,” she says. “If something is your dream, do not give space for anything else. It has to be like, ‘This is my dream; if it doesn’t work, I’m gonna die’, you know what I mean? So that’s always been my mindset.”

In Maeta’s sonic world, listeners are invited to join her on a love-infused journey drenched in vulnerability as she tells her personal stories through soulful vocals and groovy bass lines. But the path to get to where she is now started when she was just a music-obsessed teenager in the golden days of YouTube, doing covers from her bedroom, and as a baby that learned to perform before walking.

“We had these huge speakers [in my house] as a kid, and I used to sit next to them and just bounce as a baby, before I could even walk. And then when Leona Lewis’ “Bleeding Love” came out in 2007, I saw the music video on TV, and I was in awe of her. My eyes lit up, and I knew that’s exactly what I wanted to be,” she recalls. “I wanted to be her. But that kind of just developed my love for singing, and I used to get on YouTube and look at karaoke videos and study songs. I was seriously singing all day, every day. And that’s been my life since.”

Speaking of lifelong commitments, I wonder if her sense of self-awareness and confidence in her craft are also traits she carried with her from the womb. “I think I was delusional and confident [as a teenager],” she laughs. “And looking back now, I was so bad. I was posting the most embarrassing things. I’ve seen older videos recently, and I’m just like, ‘What the hell was I thinking?’ But at the time, I seriously thought I was the best thing in the world. On social media, I was never scared, it was fine. But in front of people, I would cry.”

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