U.S.-based singer-songwriter Maya releases “ROMANTICIZE,” a new collaborative digital single with rising Japanese singer-songwriter Rol3ert, out 13 May 2026. The official music video premieres the same day at 8pm JST on Maya’s official YouTube channel.
A fully English-language mid-tempo ballad built around the concept of romanticizing the past, “ROMANTICIZE” was co-written and co-produced entirely on the day of Maya and Rol3ert’s very first session together. The track is produced by Tokyo-based beatmaker and producer A.G.O, anchored by floating synths and minimal beats that give space for Maya and Rol3ert’s interlocking vocals to take centre stage.
Written from the perspective of two people on either side of a relationship that has already ended, “ROMANTICIZE” draws on intimate, everyday details — a guitar, polaroids, a hair tie, a bunk bed — to ground a deeply emotional story in something tangible and real. The song captures the quiet human tendency to polish painful memories until they become beautiful, and to long for moments that once hurt.
The vocal interplay between Maya and Rol3ert is central to the song’s emotional architecture. Maya’s fragile, transparent tone opens the story; Rol3ert’s voice carries a quiet heat that shifts the perspective. In the chorus, the male voice reaches out — “do you feel the same?” — and receives only an ambiguous response. The back-and-forth mirrors the push and pull of memory itself: unresolved, bittersweet, and impossible to let go.
The music video, directed by Taichi Nakazawa and set in an airport, extends this nostalgic, in-between feeling — a location that inherently evokes departure, distance, and the bittersweet weight of goodbye.
MAYA ON THE SONG:
“This song is built around the concept of romanticizing the past, with a strong sense of narrative throughout. As a songwriter, I care most about how much of myself I can weave into a piece. I intentionally incorporated everyday objects from my own life — like a guitar, a hair tie, polaroids, and a bunk bed — while crafting a fictional story about two people whose relationship has fallen apart, leaving space for listeners to imagine parts of their story. The past is fragile — it fades over time. Even memories filled with complicated emotions begin to look beautiful as they lose their sharpness. You may even find yourself longing for moments that once hurt.”
ROL3ERT ON THE SONG:
“We completed both the lyrics and the track on the spot during our very first session with Maya. So we really valued those in-the-moment flashes of intuition and impulse, and carried that mindset through to the very end of the process. Through our conversation, we quickly recognised shared feelings between Maya and me, and the theme fell into place right away. Because of that, I think the song clearly captures the necessity — and the power — of people from the same generation coming together to create and express something collaboratively.”
Rol3ert has been building rapid and organic momentum across Southeast Asia. His breakout single “(how could i be) honest?” charted on viral charts in Japan, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, earned heavy rotation on Singapore’s 987FM, and peaked at No.5 on Singapore’s Shazam charts — resonating especially with younger listeners for its emotionally direct songwriting in English, a quality that cuts across language barriers in the region.
His subsequent single “savior” was selected for Spotify’s New Music Friday in 22 countries, and his sold-out headline show at Shibuya WWW X in Tokyo underlined his growing status as a live artist. He performed at MUZ’POP JAM 2026 in Seoul in March, his first overseas performance, and is set to perform at SUMMER SONIC 2026 in Tokyo on the Spotify Stage. He has also been named one of Japan’s 25 representatives in Rolling Stone’s global “Future of Music” project, and was selected for Spotify Japan’s RADAR: Early Noise 2026.
With listeners spanning Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Taiwan, South Korea, the United States, Brazil, and beyond, Rol3ert continues to establish himself as a Japanese artist with genuine global reach.
