If We Ever Broke Up

Kettering, Northamptonshire native Mae Stephens has been writing songs since the age of 12. After uploading cover songs to YouTube, she eventually released two original singles. On New Year's Eve 2022, she posted 15 seconds of "If We Ever Broke Up" on TikTok and watched it blow up. Stephens told BBC's Newsbeat she only put the snippet on TikTok as "a last-minute thing" when she was struggling for content. "I just I put on the brightest jumper I could, pulled the most awful dance moves," she said. To her surprise, Stephens woke up the next morning to find that her TikTok page had gone berserk and she was being slammed with messages.

After "If We Ever Broke Up" went viral, Stephens quit her job at Asda to be a full-time musician. She signed to Republic/Universal and released the song on February 10, 2023.

Over a wet synthline, Stephens throws shade at an ex. "It was written from the perspective of if I was still with my ex-boyfriend and, if I had the attitude and the experience that I do now when I was 16, I would have done all these things " she explained.