ALANA SPRINGSTEEN CONFRONTS HER DEEPEST FEARS AND DARES TO BE FULLY KNOWN ON CONFESSIONAL NEW SONG “love me anyway”
ACCLAIMED ARTIST-SONGWRITER’S SOUL-SEARCHING NEW ALBUM ‘I HOPE THIS HELPS’ DUE OUT 29/5
Credit: Stefan Kohli
NASHVILLE, TENN. — Today, artist-songwriter Alana Springsteen shares her new song “love me anyway” — a fearless meditation on standing at a personal crossroads and choosing truth over comfort. Out now via Santa Anna Nashville, the bravely candid track captures the courage it takes to confront your deepest fears and step into an unknown future. One of Springsteen’s most unguarded and contemplative releases to date, “love me anyway” will appear on her highly anticipated sophomore album I HOPE THIS HELPS, due out May 29. Listen to “love me anyway” here, and go here to pre-order/pre-save I HOPE THIS HELPS.
“‘love me anyway’ was one of the first songs I wrote for I HOPE THIS HELPS,” says Springsteen. “I was coming off the most validating year of my life — career highs, dreams coming true — but when the noise faded, I was left with this persistent ache: loneliness, disorientation, feeling unrecognizable to myself. One night on tour, alone in a quiet hotel room in L.A., I opened my Notes app and just let it pour out. That became the chorus — a list of confessions, questions I wasn’t sure I was allowed to ask. In some ways they were directed at my family, in some ways at God, and in some ways at myself: could they still love me? Could He? Could I? I walked into the writing session carrying all of that, and what struck me was how quickly Chris, Rhett and Trannie met me there. Different lives, different generations, but the same realization: the hardest part is telling the truth — first to yourself, then to everyone else. After that, it’s about loving whoever’s still standing there with you.”
Written by Springsteen, Rhett Akins, Trannie Anderson, and Chris LaCorte, “love me anyway” documents the slow erosion of the roles she’s taken on for the sake of pleasing others, revealing the disconnect between who she’s becoming and who she was raised to be. As she opens up about her changing relationship with her faith, her family, and her own sense of self, the 25-year-old musician shows her fierce commitment to asking the hard questions — an undertaking that forms the beating heart of I HOPE THIS HELPS, her most disarmingly personal output yet.
“love me anyway” finds Springsteen taking the reins as co-producer and bringing her strong-minded vision to its quietly captivating sound. Produced by LaCorte and Springsteen, the track begins in stark urgency as she narrates her emotional spiral, merging her stripped-bare vocals with gauzy acoustic guitar work. When the chorus hits, Springsteen shifts into a soulful intensity and delivers the song’s central question: “If I let you in my brain / Would you pray for me to change / Or would you love me anyway.” Moving from pained confusion to clear-eyed revelation (e.g., “I make you happy / But damn it’s lonely / Keeping one half hid / And one half on my sleeve”), “love me anyway” builds to a stunning vulnerability in its final lyric: “Please love me anyway.” Threaded with lonesome steel guitar tones, the result is an unflinching look at longing to be loved as she sheds the version of herself she’s outgrown.
The follow-up to “black sheep” — a windows-down anthem of self-acceptance, released in March alongside its official music video — “love me anyway” is the third song shared from I HOPE THIS HELPS. With its intimate portrait of disentangling from self-abandonment and fear-based faith, Springsteen’s sophomore album will arrive on the heels of her landmark full-length debut TWENTY SOMETHING (a 2023 LP acclaimed by the likes of NPR Music, whose All Songs Considered hailed the title track as one of “The Best Songs of 2023”). Earlier this year, Springsteen introduced the I HOPE THIS HELPS era with “note to self”: a soul-searching song that moves toward a brighter future by reckoning with her past (an inquiry beautifully illustrated in its official music video, filmed in her hometown of Pungo, Virginia).
As announced last month, Springsteen is now gearing up for ALANA SPRINGSTEEN: LIVE IN EUROPE — a headline summer tour of the UK and Europe, including stops in major cities like London, Manchester, Glasgow, and Belfast. Kicking off on July 3 at Huercasa Country Festival in Riaza, Spain, the tour will wrap up with a two-night stand at Norsk Countrytreff (a Country music festival in Breim, Norway) on July 10 and 11. Go here for more info on Springsteen’s upcoming live dates.
Art credit: Brianne Farquhar & photo credit: Stefan Kohli
ABOUT ALANA SPRINGSTEEN:
A fearless storyteller with an unshakable sense of self, Alana Springsteen has built her career on telling the truth, no matter how messy or hard-fought. Across high-concept projects like her three-part debut album TWENTY SOMETHING and highly awaited sophomore LP I HOPE THIS HELPS (a boldly autobiographical body of work due out May 29), the 25-year-old artist-songwriter has carved out a vital space for raw catharsis and unfiltered reflection. A multi-instrumentalist with uncompromising vision, Springsteen plays guitar and piano throughout her albums and co-produces all her material, shaping each song with a hands-on precision that underscores her identity as both author and architect. Rooted in Country but unbound by its edges, she pulls freely from Alt-Pop and beyond, building a sonic world as expansive as it is emotionally exacting. Born and raised in Pungo, Virginia (a one-of-a-kind region where farmland meets beach), Springsteen’s connection to music began in church, where she first found her voice as a child. By age seven, she was teaching herself to play guitar and writing her own songs; at ten, she began traveling to Nashville for co-writing sessions with industry heavyweights. After making her landmark debut with TWENTY SOMETHING — a 2023 release featuring her GOLD-certified smash “goodbye looks good on you (feat. Mitchell Tenpenny)” — Springsteen earned massive praise from the likes of NPR (“Few artists dissect and make sense of life in your 20s quite like Alana Springsteen”) and PEOPLE (“Everything about her says she was made for this wild, breathless — and, yes, high-risk — life of an artist”). A powerhouse live performer who commands rooms of any size, she’s now headlined her own TWENTY SOMETHING TOUR; performed at major festivals like Stagecoach; toured internationally across Europe, the U.K., and Australia; and supported superstars like Luke Bryan, LANY, Keith Urban, and NEEDTOBREATHE. With countless milestones to her name — including making her Tiny Desk debut in 2024 and scoring a No. 1 hit with “Hot Honey” (a collaboration with MULTI-PLATINUM DJ/producer Tiësto) — Springsteen’s momentum is undeniable.
Credit: Bill Reynolds
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