A wrong-way bus journey, a stylist stepping in mud and a slightly chaotic start to the morning could easily have thrown things off course.
Instead, it set the tone perfectly: warm, funny, unguarded and very human.
By the time her track “Ghostwriter” had played on The Lunchbox with Stephen “Steps” Lowe - on RTL Today Radio, it was clear that Maya Maunet is an artist not only finding her sound, but also learning how to shape a whole world around it.
“Ghostwriter” is a clever, playful track built around a deliciously simple idea.
Maya Maunet takes the romantic words, poems and emotional fragments once given to her by someone else and turns them into music. “He’s the ghostwriter,” she laughs, explaining that there is no bitterness in the song, only inspiration. It is a neat summary of what makes her interesting as a songwriter: she takes personal experience and reshapes it into something direct, relatable and quietly empowered.
Maya has been building her music career in Luxembourg for several years, working with Konektis Management and David Galassi (of De Labbel), while also developing her sound with producer Chris Hewitt known for his work with Francis of Delirium.
She began singing, rather tentatively, by performing covers before gradually stepping into her own material, describing Luxembourg as a place that has been “really good” to her. Now, the focus is firmly on original songs, regular releases and allowing listeners to understand who Maya Maunet is, one track at a time.
Although she started in pop, Maya is increasingly being pulled toward R&B and neo-soul. She studied jazz, has been told her voice carries a soulful quality, and admits that pop once felt like the safest route because of its accessibility.
There's definitely “an old soul” element to be found in her voice, a description she happily accepted and joked should go on a future album sticker.
With the music industry very different to how it was one, or even, two decades ago, a full album can wait. Now is the time to be concentrating on singles, recognising that today’s music world moves quickly through TikTok, Instagram and short-form discovery.
That awareness extends beyond the music itself. For Maunet, style is part of storytelling. Her friend and stylist Elvira helps her build a visual identity around each release, with colours and themes attached to individual songs. “Ghostwriter” carried warm browns and reds, while her newer single “Threaten Me With A Good Time” leans into pinks, flirtation and playful confidence.
It is not, she says "simply about looking good; it is about making each song feel like its own small universe".
One of the most moving parts of the conversation came when Munnay spoke about growing up with a stutter.
She began stuttering at around eight years old after moving from Canada to Belgium, a transition involving a new country, new language and new pace of life. Singing became a way through it.
Where speaking could make her overthink every word, music gave her structure, certainty and freedom. “When you’re singing a song, the lyrics are there,” she explained. “There’s no thinking.” Covers helped first, then writing her own words followed.
That relationship with music gives Maya's work an added emotional weight. Singing was more than performance, it was a way of communicating without fear. Her advice to anyone struggling with speech, confidence or self-expression was simple: "try singing, try writing, try finding your words through music". It is clear that this is not a side note in her story, but one of the reasons she now treats music with such urgency.
Her current single, “Threaten Me With A Good Time”, captures a lighter side. She describes it as flirty, fun and "rooted in the idea of turning a supposed warning into something desirable". Perhaps, more relatable, is how she described it through the example of being "threatened by my mum with chips (crisps for us Brits) for dinner as a child" — only to realise that, for her, this was not a punishment at all.
That sense of humour runs through her personality and her writing: playful, self-aware and just a little mischievous.
Maya is now preparing to release more music at a much quicker pace. She says "songs are ready, some still waiting in the vault", and she is determined to be more visible and more active across Instagram, YouTube and streaming platforms. “Music is going to be flying out of my notebook and into your ears,” she said.
If the conversation proved anything, it is that Maya is building a sound, a style and a story that feel entirely her own.
There may have been a wrong bus that morning, but musically, she seems to be heading very much in the right direction.
Watch this space.
