Written by Kelly Holm
Tennessee-based singer-songwriter Natalie Madigan may be under your radar now, but she’s due to blow up big this year. Echoes of Lauren Daigle, Sara Bareilles and Adele can be heard in her voice and lyrics. Her sound, however, is still distinctly her own. From the piano ballad “What It’s Like to be Known” to the stadium-worthy “Remember Why You Fell in Love,” soon you’ll be singing her name like the national anthem.
“I have struggled a lot with comparison and self-doubt,” Madigan tells Elicit. “I found myself trying to write like other artists, brand myself like other artists, [so] I really had to take a step back and reevaluate why I was doing music… I have found that writing and performing the music that I want to write has brought a lot more personal fulfillment.”
Music has been a constant in Madigan’s life since childhood: she took piano lessons and was a theatre kid, but knew it was her be-all and end-all after attending GRAMMY Camp Nashville as a teen.
“I later went on to pursue an Audio Production degree at MTSU, while simultaneously writing and releasing music,” Madigan said. “[As a sophomore], I got a backing band together and we played a set at the MTSU Studio B… [it] really got me hooked on the whole live-performance thing.”
Fresh off the release of her album What It’s Like To Be Known, Madigan’s got plenty of open roads and packed houses in front of her.
“The album as a whole had 100k listens in the first week, which I was not expecting,” she says. “[It] is more honest and real than anything I have ever released. It is stylistically, lyrically and musically 100% me.”
The titular song, she asserts, “sums up everything I wanted the album to be about.”
In the wake of its release, Madigan has been interacting with new fans from all across the map, and is always penning new music as well.
“I started writing poetry and turning [it] into songs,” she says. “That’s how ‘Remember Why You Fell in Love’ was written.”
Of that song, Madigan states “It’s fun to do acoustically, and even more fun to do it with a band.”
With a multitude of styles and influences, from Lana del Rey to Jon Bellion, she thinks there’s something for everyone found in her repertoire, regardless of taste. And now that her new music is getting out there, Madigan’s slated to have her best year yet.
“I’ve kind of branded 2020 as ‘the year we ask for what we want’,” she says. “I think it’s so easy in this industry, especially as a female artist, to not speak up for what you need… so I keep reminding myself of that every day, not only in music, but in my personal life as well.”
Following this advice, who knows? Maybe this time next year, Madigan will be geared up to fulfill her longtime dreams of performing with Ariana Grande and taking the Bonnaroo stage.
“I’m an Enneagram 3, so [I] do like achieving!” she says. “But most importantly I just really love music, and all things creative.”
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Read our write up on Natalie Madigan’s What It’s Like To Be Known