Rising Aotearoa singer-songwriter Beth Elsden returns with her sharpest release yet, 'Haunts You', out this Friday, May 15.

Biting and quietly powerful, the track captures Elsden in full reclamation mode - turning heartbreak into clarity, and closure into something far more satisfying: a final word. Written by Beth Elsden and produced by Dunedin-based artist and longtime collaborator Abby Wolfe, 'Haunts You' was mixed and mastered by Emily Wheatcroft-Snape.

‍As the final track on Elsden’s upcoming debut EP The Waiting Room, it lands like a mic drop - the moment the fog lifts, the rose-coloured glasses crack, and the narrator steps out of the wreckage with her head held high.

‍“This track is the final song on the EP and I believe it really signifies a change of heart and a reclamation of power after a relationship,” says Beth. “My best friend and I would always reflect after our first relationships that we would have realised the damage they were doing to us a lot sooner if we just told each other what was going on in them.”

Beth taps into a universal early-love trap: the pressure to perform perfection, even when things are quietly unraveling. “I think it’s common in your first relationship to feel like you need to display that you are in a perfect relationship, or else it’s some type of moral failing for not choosing the right person to fall in love with,” she explains. But 'Haunts You' isn’t interested in preserving anyone’s reputation, least of all the person who caused the damage.

‍“This song is about regaining confidence after a difficult relationship and realising that their karma is having their actions follow them around, by way of me telling everyone what they did!” There’s a sly satisfaction threaded through the track, echoing the Fleetwood Mac line “You’ll never get away from the sound of the woman that loves you” - a sentiment Beth says has proven true in more ways than one since writing the song. \With each lyric, she turns memory into leverage, and vulnerability into something weaponised and brilliant.

With each lyric, she turns memory into leverage, and vulnerability into something weaponised and brilliant. “It speaks to the power of catharsis in songwriting and it feels triumphant as the last song on my upcoming EP, The Waiting Room.” she says. “The EP begins in a very fragile contemplative place so it is nice to finish on the note of ‘soon my words become your ghosts, I’m the one that haunts you’. It sort of signifies how I found my power and confidence through my writing and creating this body of work.”

‍With 'Haunts You', Beth Elsden continues to cement herself as one of Aotearoa’s most compelling emerging voices, delivering diaristic songwriting with a clever edge, and proving that sometimes the strongest revenge isn’t bitterness… it’s being honest, being heard, and being unforgettable.

'Haunts You' is out now on all streaming platforms. Listen here!

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