Swedish singer Anna Leone’s debut song is almost too real

Sometimes a song feels like it's staring right at you, its raw, open-hearted emotion giving you nowhere to hide. The debut single from 23-year-old Anna Leone is one of those: over a sparse folk landscape, she sings about doomed love in lyrics that are painfully succinct. To boot, the Stockholm-based singer-songwriter has also shared a sweeping video (premiering today on The FADER) in which she literally stares you in the eye, while performing the song against vast, lonely backdrops.

Speaking over email to The FADER, Leone explained: "I worked with two great directors — Victoria Lafaurie and Hector Albouker — and they proposed the ferry, which immediately felt like the perfect location to convey a sense of vulnerability. We went out to Vaxholm in Sweden at 4 a.m. to catch that special light before sunrise!

"It was important for me to keep it very simple and sincere, and focus on bringing out the song itself. I think the video really ended up reflecting that — it starts off very softly and then grows into something a bit more powerful and big, while still maintaining a sense of intimacy." Watch it above.