Run reborn: Maria Marinescu lit a new fire under the iconic pop ballad

Maria Marinescu proved herself an unrivalled conduit of emotional exorcism in her cover of Run. In a time when ballads rarely trouble the charts unless they’re dressed in minimalist melancholia or overproduced superficiality, she unapologetically leaned into the raw and the rapturous, carrying the Snow Patrol original to new places with preistess-esque vocal presence. Her soaring range, the kind that rattles glass and heartstrings in equal measure, wraps around the composition with such precision, you’d be forgiven for thinking the track was written for her. Her roots in classical music echo through the grace of her delivery, but the pop polish that has followed since her transition at 16 hasn’t dulled the depth or nuance of her sound. Her ability to access emotional states that words fail to capture is nothing short of seismic; Run is far from a straight lift. Where Leona Lewis took it to theatre in 2008, Maria Marinescu treated it as a sacred rite, layering harmonies with a neo-classical sensibility that steered the track out of the mainstream and into something far more affecting. The Romanian singer-songwriter found her place in the industry with her debut single, Drive, at 18, but it’s in this moment that […]

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