Norway's Silje Steine opens up about feeling alone and longing to find the right people on her latest single.

Norwegian singer-songwriter Silje Steine’s latest single “Home” is a delicate and heartfelt ballad inspired by the universal quest for love and belonging. After dropping out of university and going through a breakup in 2023, Silje moved back to her hometown but couldn’t help feeling out of place. While hopeful that she would find the right people once she moved again in the future, past experiences of leaving the people who felt like home while studying abroad loomed over her.
“I feared that I would get stuck in a cycle where I would keep looking forever, never being able to settle down and perhaps trying to run away from myself.”
“Home” captures this sense of longing and fear, but also the hope that, with each new day, we are closer than ever to finding the people we are meant to find. Soft instrumentation builds up to a driving melody that feels like an optimistic realization of what the future could hold.
In the process of creating her upcoming debut album, Open Up, many of Silje’s songs began as poems. “Home” was one of the poems that was sort of taken apart and pieced back together to become a song. Silje recalls it taking the longest to finish, as vocals were re-recorded several times, drums added and removed, etc.
“However, in that process, I also learned a lot about songwriting, production, and how many small adjustments can make a big difference, so that was rewarding!.”
For Silje, a big motivation behind creating her music is to let go of thoughts and feelings that she has held onto in the hopes that, while finding emotional release herself, others who feel the same way will feel understood.