On March 12, 2026, beabadobee and The Marías released an atmospheric, dreamy collaboration, with Bea as the narrator and Maria Zardoya of the melodic, lush band The Marías adding haunting vocals in the background.
To me, this feels like a powerful ballad telling the story of the trials and tribulations with your partner. How a relationship can feel so intense, almost like battle: One Battle After Another vibes. How the journey of doing life with someone can feel like it is you and that person against the world, and like there is no one else you would want to fight the war of life with. While other times, inevitably, the crash comes. The sword strikes where you thought it wouldn’t. From the one you thought couldn’t. Bea goes on to sing repeatedly-
“Stay /
Stay or just leave /
Stay or just leave me be /
Stay or just leave me be.”
In this line, we can surmise that Bea is having her feelings played with, and there is a pleadingness within this. How she is all consumed with this person, and she just can’t seem to shake the nightmare of it all. So that leads her to need an end to all of this. Just stay or leave.
This track is one beautiful nightmare to me. Personally, mostly when I dream, I have nightmares. But what are nightmares except our fears and anxieties personified? I think that’s why this track resonates with me so much. Beabadoobee has that skill in her writing to make lyrics stay with you. And I don’t know about you, but nightmares always stick with me, just as the power of this song does.
“Nightmares always feel like this /
They swallow me /
But I let go /
Doesn’t feel like I can breathe /
They follow me /
But I let go.”
As bad as the nightmare can feel and as suffocating as it swallows you, the silver lining is that eventually you wake up and can crawl back onto your partner’s side and fight the war together.
The collaboration of beabadoobee and The Marías has been a major win for all of the sad-alt listening girls out there. Beabadoobee took a break from the music scene in 2025 to then come back in 2026 with a collaboration with The Marías that had been teased for years, as the two have been fans of one another’s music, undoubtedly for a while. A hazy song that has aura sprinkled all over it makes fans eager for a new beabadoobee album, with nothing being teased quite yet, but critics and fans can only infer that something is in the works for the 25-year old alt-pop star.
