YouTube covers sensation Maro is letting his own story shine on debut single "carsick"

Growing up in Lebanon, Daou began writing songs as a coping mechanism for the loneliness he began to experience moving around the country. "Moving and travelling around during my early teenage years made me feel lonely, and once I started to write songs and be creative, it became the perfect outlet for my emotions," he explains. So with Beirut as a base, he began sharing stripped-back covers of his favourite artists' songs.

He was (and still is) up for putting his spin on anything from Radiohead to Frank Sinatra through to Kelly Clarkson and Billie Eilish, Maro's covered a lot of songs. His take on Eilish's "bury a friend" currently has two million plays, but it was his version of Lil Peep's "Falling Down" that really sparked something among his fans, old and new.

Now pressing play on his own songs, "carsick" sees Maro take everything he's learned from arranging his own versions of these pop songs into creating his own. Noting the influence of his parents, he says "[their] taste in music has really contributed to my sound as an artist in terms of deriving inspiration from Lebanese and Ukrainian culture."

Moving away from using his lyrics as a way to escape being lonely, "carsick" is about something real and undoubtedly retable; an on and off relationship. Despite knowing there’s no point in trying again, I still do, which leads me to bad habits and a repetitive cycle," he admits.

Adding some beats behind the signature strum of his acoustic guitar, this is just the first taste of the music this young star has been working on. Ready to break out from behind the words of his idols, he explains "I want to have something that fans hear and immediately know, this is Maro... The music is raw and emotional, and I just want people to find it real."