Alana Springsteen was without a doubt one of the bright lights at C2C 2023 and in country music over the last several years. Her rise has been slow paced, thoughtful and deliberate. Now, she has released the first instalment of her three-part debut album, TWENTY SOMETHING, coming later this year. 

Messing It Up is a phenomenal and enticing opening chapter to TWENTY SOMETHING’s thoughtfully created and crafted narrative – an in-depth autobiographical account of the nonstop emotional whirlwind of life in your 20s. Springsteen is a powerful songwriter, getting fearlessly real about the mistakes and misadventures of early adulthood over the course of six powerhouse songs. The new project showcases the true-to-life storytelling that’s made the 22-year-old Virginia Beach, VA, native one of the most exciting and magnetic new songwriters. On this first part, Springsteen delves into the hardships everyone in their twenties experiences, and the mistakes they make along the way.

There’s a great deal of emotional complexity on the record, from “goodbye looks good on you” featuring Mitchell Tenpenny, which serves up an unexpected twist on the classic breakup song, making peace that they were never right and that the break was for the best to the sadness and loneliness of ‘shoulder to cry on.’ More than anything, the project shows an artist already capable of crafting a project from the details of the songs to the overall picture of a record. It’s a relatable and delightful project, that sees Springsteen seeking empowerment and self-acceptance through catchy melodies and radiant vocal work, marking her as one to watch in the coming years.

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Alana Springsteen finds her love life shifting into reverse for the end-of-the-road track, “shoulder to cry on,” available now across all streaming platforms and digital retailers. As featured on the first installment from her hotly anticipated three-part debut album, TWENTY SOMETHING, Messing It Up drops March 24 – pre-save/pre-add now. It’s a gorgeous track that continually hammers home the consistency of Springsteen to deliver an emotional and poignant ballad.

“‘shoulder to cry on’ represents a very real low point in the Messing It Up phase of my debut album TWENTY SOMETHING. Desperation, sadness, yearning, loneliness, self-doubt … it’s all there in this one. We’ve all wanted someone we can’t have at one point or another and prayed for some form of relief. It’s an incredibly uncomfortable place to be. I’ve always had a hard time letting myself cry. Allowing myself to feel emotions in general has been a struggle for me,” shares Springsteen. “My ex and I had our last big fight parked in my car in a subdivision lot, and it marked the beginning of the end of that relationship. I’ve now realized that a lot of my fights, breakdowns, and tears have happened when I’ve been alone in my car. It’s a safe space for me to be vulnerable.”

Written by Springsteen with Liz Rose, Trannie Anderson, and AJ Pruis, the cleverly-penned Country ballad maps out a vivid picture of a romantic breakdown – one where the crash-and-burn trauma comes well after the wreck. Full of highway-riding double entendre, she details two hearts heading off in different directions and the emotional fumes of being left behind: “This heart’s about to break / right on the interstate / I ain’t gonna make it home / So I’m pullin’ over / Cause I need a shoulder to cry on.” Featuring the weary, desolate sound of a midnight roadside, with beautiful yet distraught vocals and pounding drums to match her pounding heart, “shoulder to cry on” was produced by Chris LaCorte and Springsteen. Perfectly capturing an unexpected turn, strings and steel guitar breeze by as Springsteen’s relationship fades away like taillights in the dark. Watch the visualizer.

“It was important to me that the production on this one wasn’t too bare. I think it would have been easy to give it a really broken down, singer-songwriter feel, but this is a very emotional song for me, and I wanted it to take you on a ride. There’s nothing calm or controlled about the feelings this song represents,” adds Springsteen. “When that chorus hits, it’s completely desperate and I wanted the instrumentation to reflect that. The opposite is true for the bridge. It’s possible to scream, ‘I need a drink but damn it I’m drivin’’ in a moment where you lose control, and it’s also possible to whisper the words when you’re lost and on the verge of giving up with tears streaming down your face. This song represents both sides of that spectrum.” 

Springsteen is currently supporting Adam Doleac’s ‘BARSTOOL WHISKEY WONDERLAND’ Tour, Springsteen and is next jetting for a three-show run of European arenas as part of CMA Presents Introducing Nashvilleduring C2C: Country to Country 2023 (March 10-12). Find a full list of tour dates and ticketing information here.

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Multi-talented singer-songwriter Alana Springsteen has today announced the upcoming release of HISTORY OF BREAKING UP (PART TWO) — a deeply personal project that affirms her gift for turning heartbreak into hope, healing, and unapologetic joy. Due out July 15, the eight-song collection follows 2021’s widely praised HISTORY OF BREAKING UP (PART ONE), once again showcasing her confessional and highly sophisticated songwriting. Pre-order the project here.

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Alana Springsteen has released her brand-new single ‘Me Myself and Why’ available everywhere now.

“As a songwriter, I write what I know, and this past year definitely brought its share of heartbreak. ‘Me Myself and Why’ is about that heart-versus-head moment after a breakup when you know you need to walk away but you falter, even though this person has given you every reason to leave and not look back,” shares Springsteen. “It’s full of passion, conflict, angst, pain, and anger – at myself and at him. I found myself going back-and-forth between that range of emotions a lot when I was in the thick of it in my own life, and I’m so proud that we were able to make the final track mirror the way I felt.”

This sucker punch straight to the heart was penned by Springsteen, Josh Jenkins, and Pete Good – as both songwriter and producer. “Me Myself and Why” follows Springsteen’s HISTORY OF BREAKING UP (PART ONE) EP, that had PEOPLE raving, “History of Breaking Up (Part One) serves as Springsteen’s most important and most anticipated project of her still-young career, a magical mixture of deep thoughts on love and heartbreak, all delivered by a voice that seems to represent the future of country music.” As a co-writer on every song, co-producer of five tracks, and credited on acoustic guitar for six of the seven tunes, CMT further hailed, “Springsteen’s passion — as well as her potential for increased stardom — are apparent.”

Named in HITS’ sought-after New & Developing Artists, Springsteen has independently surpassed almost 50 MILLION career streams and amassed 670 playlist adds. Dubbed “Nashville’s hottest newcomer” by Country Now, she’s currently supporting Mitchell Tenpenny’s 2 US IT DID TOUR with two dates remaining after playing Brick Street in Oxford, OH, on Wednesday (3/2). Fans can purchase tickets to this weekend’s dates – 8 Seconds Saloon in Indianapolis, IN, tonight (3/4), and The Intersection in Grand Rapids, MI, tomorrow (3/5) – here.

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Alana Springsteen is an immensely fresh talent in the Nashville sonic landscape – with her easy Californian-infused country style, engaging lyrics and phenomenal vocal. Today, she has released her first extended project – History of Breaking Up (Part One) – that posits her as an artist of many layers and complexities.

Opening track ‘California’ established Springsteen as an artist worthy of note, offering a stunning muse on conflicted emotions. “Maybe it’s us or maybe I’m just / Falling in love with California,” Springsteen ponders with a golden infused, ringing acoustic guitar backdrop, it’s a swell of emotion that is enormously captivating, showing her ability to provide a catchy and dynamic song without the aid of huge production. Indeed, ‘Trying Not To’ is a dizzying collaboration with Roman Alexander, winding through the complicated spiral of emotions involved in a break-up. ‘Take back goodbye, said I changed my mind / Been there before but I’m tryin’ not to / Call you tonight but it’s almost like / I miss you more when I’m tryin’ not to.’ Both artists offer their unique and fresh vocals in a delightfully entrancing track that showcases a very real predicament.

On ‘Girlfriend,’ Springsteen unpacks what it means to be the one before the one. ‘You’re going to end up with her in the end / She’s your girl and I’m just your girlfriend.’ It’s an intoxicatingly emotional track that shows the vulnerabilities of Springsteen’s vocal in a very real and authentic way. This vulnerability is underlined yet further on ‘God Must Be Mad at Me,’ where Springsteen exposes her soul, with the aid of muted production as she questions unrequited love. ‘He gave me hope and gave me faith / Just to go and take it all away.’ Her vocal is simply flawless in its naked vulnerability, infusing real emotion in every line. So, ‘Homesick’ too looks back on memory lane, ‘If I don’t have your arms round me, I’m not where I’m supposed to be.’ It’s a waltzingly compelling melody that offers yet another layer to her story of heartbreak.

Of course, Springsteen has an empowered, sassy side that is showcased at the end of the project on ‘I Blame You’ and ‘Zero Trucks’ – two delightfully propulsive tracks that give her the ability to dance and sing out the toxins of the breakup in a free-flowing way and allow Springsteen to experiment lyrically and show her most artful songwriting. More than anything, this project has continued the showcase of Springsteen as an artist of immense capability of potential – it is to be hoped that this project gets the attention it deserves.

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“I ain’t lookin’ in my rearview / I ain’t gonna miss your lift kit / If you miss my tailgate / Well baby you can kiss it,” sings emerging artist-songwriter Alana Springsteen in brand-new kiss-off Country bop, “Zero Trucks,” available now. “I’ve always relied on music to get me through. Sometimes you want to sit in the sadness and other times you want to escape. What I love about ‘Zero Trucks’ is that it’s a lighthearted reminder that endings can bring freedom – nudging you closer to the person you want to be and the people you want to be with,” shares Springsteen. “The whole process of creating this song, from writing with Walker [Hayes] and Joe [Clemmons], to producing with Jerry [Flowers] and Jared [Keim], plus shooting the music video (stay tuned!) with all of my friends brought me so much joy. I can only hope it brings that same happiness to others.”

Springsteen shows her carefree side on the new track that takes her sound to a whole new level as her mood-boosting tune struts with the confidence of a woman at her best. Credited as co-writer, co-producer, and acoustic guitarist, Springsteen wrote with Walker Hayes and Joe Clemmons, and tacked production alongside Jerry Flowers and Jared Keim. A sunny, upbeat anthem for the ultimate comeback summer, its swerving groove will get you hooked.

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Rising country artist, Alana Springsteen has signed with leading global talent and entertainment company UTA for worldwide representation in all areas. Of the news, Springsteen shares, “The UTA team blew me away with their passion, excitement, and plan for me and my music… They understood me and my vision from day one, and UTA definitely felt like home. They’re brilliant at what they do, and I’m so grateful they’re now a part of the fam. Thank you to Jeffrey [Hasson], Brent [Weinstein], David [Zedeck], and the entire team. I can’t wait for everything to come!”

Already positioned by PEOPLE as “a name you’ll want to know in country music,” Springsteen has independently surpassed over 30 MILLION on-demand steams in just over a year plus amassed 670 playlist adds. Writing with “beyond-her-years poise, mixing the lovestruck giddiness of a teenager with the hooks of a pro” (Rolling Stone), the 20-year-old Virginia Beach, VA-native is collaborating with Nashville’s hottest tastemakers. Signing her first publishing deal at just 14, her blossoming catalog further showcases her “deft hand at applying a musical twist to everyday occurrences” (The Virginian-Pilot).

“We’re beyond excited to represent such an amazing artist, songwriter, and performer as Alana Springsteen,” shares Jeffrey Hasson and David Zedeck, Springsteen’s UTA Agents. “From our first meeting, we were impressed by her drive, purpose, and raw talent. Alana’s unique ability to capture emotions in the songs that she writes, and her commanding presence onstage, is a very rare gift. She’s a superstar in the making and we can’t wait to help share her talent with the world.”

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With her heart pounding like waves on the Santa Monica Pier, Pandora’s 2021 Country Artist to Watch Alana Springsteen is swept up in the magic and mystery of a West Coast romance in summertime stunner, “California,” available now at all streaming platforms and digital retailers. The track is a stunning muse on conflicted emotions and is simply Springsteen’s best track to date.

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Hey, how are you? 

I’m so good.

I’ve just been listening to your new single California. Your vocal on it is incredible and I’m so excited for it to be released.

You’re so sweet that means the absolute world. I’ve been so excited for this one to come out. We wrote it at the end of last year and it just feels like the perfect summer jam.

What was the immediate sonic and lyrical inspiration for the track then?

I love to tell vivid stories with my songs, but it’s just as important to me that the melody and instrumentation also takes the listener on a journey. The same way words can tell stories and elicit emotions, so can a melody and sounds. I wanted ‘California’ to have a nostalgic, fantasy-like quality to it and that’s how my co-producers (Jared Keim, Jerry Flowers) and I approached building the song and layering the tracks. We doubled up on the vocal throughout and stacked the harmonies. That, in addition to the reverb and compression on the vocal, gave it the dream-like feel I was looking for. To balance it out, the pedal steel and driving rhythm of the acoustic guitar helped keep everything grounded.

‘California’ is about intense connection, whether to a person or a place. It’s that moment when everything perfectly collides in the form of a magical, unforgettable experience. We often look back on those moments to try to figure out how and why they were so idyllic, but we can’t. I tried to recreate that in the lyrics and sounds of ‘California.’ In my mind, you’ll listen to this on a sunset drive, windows down, wind blowing through your hair, and let it take you back to a time and place you’ll never forget.

Obviously this comes off the back of ‘Trying Not To’ – did you see the response to that track? I feel like you keep showcasing your sound in totally new ways.

Honestly that was one of my goals too with this next batch of songs. This project we’ve got coming this year was just to show the fans different sides of my artistry. I think I’ve realized over the past year that there’s this ‘night drive’ side of me that’s very moody and atmospheric and ethereal and then there’s this other side that’s the stadium bangers that everyone’s hopefully going to be jumping at. I just want to give people more sides of me, because I have a lot of different influences and I love seeing all that come out.

It’s definitely starting to come through and the more you release the more we’re seeing the full picture of who you are as an artist.

Yeah, exactly and it’s crazy, I’ve only had music out for like a year and a half to two years. It’s been such a wild journey – longer than that – but it’ll be a good year for sure, I’m excited.

You moved to Nashville from Virginia back when you were 14. First of all, did you always know that was going to happen?

So, I’ve been doing music, literally ever since I can remember – it was my first love. I grew up singing in my granddad’s churches as they were both pastors, so that’s kind of where it first came about. I started playing guitar when I was seven – I was singing before I could talk, it was my heart. I remember when I was nine years old, I wrote my first song and kind of put my love of stories and lyrics together with music, it changed my world and I knew it was going to be something I did forever. I can just express myself and say things in my songs that I can’t even explain – otherwise, I wouldn’t even tell anybody any other way. It was this form of expression that was so surreal, just insane. Literally, when I was 9 or 10 – I know this sounds crazy – I just felt like I was meant to be a country artist.

That just shows that it was right. 

Totally, I think my parents recognize that, especially because nobody in my family does music. It was this thing that came out of nowhere that I felt in my heart and I think they saw that. They saw my passion for writing and everything and I’m so thankful to them because they’ve always been the people that have encouraged those dreams. I think they can go two ways – some parents are like you can’t do music, but my parents were the opposite end of that, they completely supported me. They actually took me to Nashville for the first time when I was 10 years old.

I love hearing parents being that supportive – it’s so cool.

It is, I mean they didn’t know anything about music, but they were like, we want to figure this out, we want to help you pursue it any way we can. So, we came to Nashville and I did some of my first co-writing sessions – I didn’t even know that was a thing until I got here. I’m sure you can imagine – my love of writing on my own was so high, but it was magnified when you get in the room with other people that think the same way.

I guess you can bounce ideas off each other and almost start with an idea in your head of where you thought the song was going to go but when you talk to people it becomes something completely different.

Exactly, it’s truly magical and I’m still so obsessed with it. I learned that there’s so many different parts of the industry – from the outsider you see the artists and the label but you don’t realise the team behind it – and that resonated with me. I was like, ‘okay, I can see the path’. Now I know what this looks like, I’m just gonna throw myself along into it, so from that point, we would take quarterly trips to Nashville – I’d come in for like a week and write and meet people and kind of just develop that community. When I was 14, the next milestone was getting offered my first publishing deal. I was offered a deal from BMG  and I just felt so at home there. There were people at those companies that were mentors to me on the writing side and the business side – they helped me grow and truly find my voice. I knew it was the right move and my parents supported me. So, I literally picked up my entire family – my younger brothers too – and we moved from Virginia Beach to Nashville and nothing has ever been the same since.

And now it’s all coming together! ‘Trying Not To’ was one of the first big introductions, for me personally, to your music and that really stuck with me. Can you talk a bit about that track and the writing room and how the idea developed?

So, we wrote ‘Trying Not To’ last year amidst all the COVID craziness – that’s one thing I would say that came out of that year was a lot of great songs that I’ve never been more excited about. It was our first write that day and we just set up our team and were like ‘let’s see what happens.’ We got in the room with him [Roman Alexander] – he works a lot with Jared Keim and Jerry Flowers – and it was my first time meeting all of them. I just walked in and sat down and just started throwing out some ideas. I remember Jerry had brought in this little piano loop that he was playing – he was like, ‘this could be a cool vibe for the day’. I’m a very melodically driven person – there might be a loop going or some chords – and I’ll start humming and singing over it that’s how we landed on the chorus, melody and all of that. I remember what was different about this write was that we didn’t really start with a hook – the hook kind of materialised later. We wanted to switch it up [the vocal arrangement] and instead of one verse then the other, I think the idea itself is about two people going back and forth – you’re not right for each other, but you just keep going back. I wanted to mirror that tension in the verses, this give and take. It felt so special and then they built a little demo around it. Even just getting that back, it had this energy and I was like, ‘This is what I’ve wanted to write for so long’. It just felt right and obviously Roman’s voice brings so much to it.

I think both your vocals together – there’s just something so seamless about it and there’s something so special about your vocals melding together.

That means the world to hear you say that. It felt like that to our teams too and I think you can’t plan that.

At the end of the day, you can have two incredibly talented artists get in a room together but it doesn’t work, so it was perfect that it did. 

Yeah, we both felt passionate about it, I knew I wanted to release it and kind of make a statement at the top of this year with that song. So at that point, I got in the studio with Jerry and Jared and just got really strategic about the sounds and vocal treatment. I like to be really hands on with production – I think I’m so inspired by sounds and how you can use instruments to create emotion. It’s so fun to me and I have all these ideas swirling in my head and they were incredible just about collaborating with me on that and figuring it out.

I think that approach of being so hands-on with your artistry is so important and it really comes through in your music. 

That’s always been my goal and that’s why I think that collaboration works so well. I just want my fans to know that I’m so purposeful with my art, I want them to see me and every piece of it – whether it’s an outfit I wear on my Instagram or a song that comes out or the lyrics. I want them to know it’s me and it’s coming from my heart – that was really important to me. I just feel like this song was the perfect marriage between the two sides of me – the night side and the stadium side – it’s the perfect jumping tempo.

It’ll be so fun to play live when shows come back. 

Oh, I cannot wait for that day!

Thank you so much for the time today Alana – I’m so excited to hear all the new music to come. 

You’re so sweet. It was so great to talk to you.

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Fast-rising country newcomer Alana Springsteen has released her stunning new track ‘Trying Not To’ feat. Roman Alexander – a scorching track that launches her next musical chapter. The track is driven by an addictive hook and well-crafted lyrical twists, telling the story of the unshakable pull between two people after a breakup. The got-to-have-you anthem was written by Springsteen and Alexander with the track’s producers Jerry Flowers (Keith Urban, Carrie Underwood) and Jared Keim (Rascal Flatts, Restless Road).

“‘Trying Not To’ is a song that came to life in the writing room. It was my first time writing with Jerry, Jared and Roman, and I’m not sure if it had to do with the four of us being such a great fit as collaborators or if we just had a really great day (maybe both?), but it felt like it almost wrote itself,” Springsteen shares. “We all knew right away that it needed to be out in the world. At its core, it’s about the push and pull of two people who know they’re not good for one another but just can’t seem to stay away. We wanted to describe that tension and how things that are wrong for you can also be what you want the most. It made so much sense for this to be a duet – the back and forth of the relationship is mirrored in the structure of the verses and Roman’s vocal brought so much energy to the track overall. I can’t wait for you to hear it!”

Visualizing the song’s spellbinding push and pull, Springsteen is doubling down today with the official “Trying Not To” music video, exclusively premiered by PEOPLE – read and watch here. Starring the duet partners, the smoldering, performance-led clip was directed by David Bradley and captured in an abandoned Nashville warehouse.

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