Madison Beer: ‘I Felt Like I Had Failed, Why ‘Selfish’ Singer's Career Halted

Madison Beer has been in the music industry since the age of 13, but her fame has only recently begun to skyrocket.

The 21-year-old singer opened up to Rolling Stone about the long journey she’s had to undertake to find her voice in the music industry.

“I walk into a room and everybody has their mind made up about me,” she said. “They don’t care to get to know me.”

At only 16, Beer faced a roadblock that set her back in her career and “discouraged” her. Island Records, the label the singer was signed to, dropped her after disagreements ensued over the musical style and tone of what would have been her first album.

“I felt like I had failed,” she said. “Especially at 16 years old, obviously it feels like everything is the end of the world, so it just felt like everyone had given up on me. It really hurt and discouraged me in a lot of ways.”

However, Beer had a vision for her music career and continued to pursue her dreams independently. Her first EP, “As She Pleases” was released in 2018 in partnership with First Access.

Now, her debut album, “Life Support” is set to be released this summer. Beer said she is excited to be able to express her true feelings on the album, diving into her own mental health struggles she faced with depression.

“With my album, I made a promise to myself that this is going to be my time to express honestly and truthfully how I’ve been feeling,” she said. “I could finally tell my story the way I wanted to tell it and touch on things like medications that are harmful for young adults that I’ve been put on, and real shit I’ve never been able to talk about.”

Beer was first discovered at the young age of 13 when Justin Bieber stumbled upon a YouTube video of her covering, “At Last” by Etta James, HuffPost reported in 2012.

Beer has always looked up to other famous singers with a similar sound to James, like Lauryn Hill, but with record labels constantly trying to define her sound, she was forced to take back control.

“I was always told, ‘Well, one day when you’re older, you’ll be able to make that stuff,’ ” she said. “But then I realized that I don’t need to be older to do it.”