Mhairi Jasmine Enters the Emo Pop Rock Ranking with It’s a Shame, Her Most Played Song
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Mhairi Jasmine Enters the Emo Pop Rock Ranking with It's a Shame, Her Most Played Song
A Japanese-Scottish Songwriter Turns a Pattern of Heartbreak Into a 2000s Pop-Rock Single
Mhairi Jasmine has a clear leader in her own Spotify tally: It’s a Shame, with 1,803 plays to 1,225 for her newer single, Stay with Me. Released on 14 February 2025, the debut is a bittersweet 2000s pop-rock song about breaking a pattern of falling for the wrong people.
Mhairi Jasmine’s It’s a Shame is one of the entries in our Rock, Alternative Rock, Indie playlist below, and her coverage across the network is gathered on Mhairi Jasmine’s artist profile. The single reached BestMusic.News through PopHits.Co Music Charts, which verifies independent artists and places their releases across its network of music news titles. Give it a spin, then keep reading for where it sits in her catalogue.
It’s a Shame Is for Anyone Who Keeps Falling for the Same Kind of Wrong Person and Knows It
The song starts after a breakup. Mhairi Jasmine wrote it as a stream of consciousness about relationships, self-worth and the habit of choosing people who cannot give much back. One line sums up the frustration: it amazes me how willing I am to play these wicked games again and again.
Above all, that self-awareness is what gives the song its listener. It is for anyone who has seen the pattern clearly and repeated it anyway. Yet it does not end in blame. Instead, the closing lines turn towards something better, with the promise that good days are coming soon.
The credits, meanwhile, are short. Mhairi Jasmine Hamilton wrote the words and the music, and Desmond Rucker plays the drums. Her own description of the track points to the pop-rock records she grew up around. So listeners who came through emo pop rock, alt rock and indie pop are the natural audience, and they are exactly who this entry is aimed at.
Her background also explains the craft behind it. She attended a specialist music school, where she trained classically and also studied pop vocals. When the single came out, she was in her final year at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. On record, her voice can push hard and then pull right back.
Where Fans of WILLOW and Joni Mitchell Fit In
Mhairi Jasmine names WILLOW and Joni Mitchell among her influences, and each one helps place It’s a Shame. WILLOW moved from alt-R&B into pop-punk and indie rock on lately I feel EVERYTHING in 2021, with guests including Travis Barker and Avril Lavigne. In other words, that album showed how far a turn-of-the-millennium sound could stretch for a new generation, which is the same territory It’s a Shame works in.
Joni Mitchell wrote Blue, released in 1971, in the aftermath of her breakup with Graham Nash. Afterwards, the album was praised for exploring relationships with an honesty that critics called confessional, a label Mitchell herself rejected. Mhairi Jasmine describes her lyrics as diary entries, and It’s a Shame follows that line from the private page to the chorus.
A Year On, It’s a Shame Still Leads for Mhairi Jasmine as Manchester Gigs and an EP Take Shape
Over a year after release, the single remains her most played song on Spotify. It sits ahead of Stay with Me, her latest single, and What Do You Say?, a 2024 single credited to She’s Mine, planet w.e.s.m.o and Mhairi Jasmine. In the meantime, the single has been featured by Pigeon_opinion and Thestrive Magazine. Its music video, filmed and directed by Michael McVeigh, followed on 28 February 2025.
Her own biography, meanwhile, adds more context. It lists work with Cian Ducrot and a performance on The Graham Norton Show with Tom Odell. Finally, it says she has been gigging across Manchester and preparing her debut EP.
The Community Mhairi Jasmine Writes For
Mhairi Jasmine is a bilingual artist of Japanese and Scottish heritage, and she has said she is autistic and queer. She hopes her songs make listeners feel connected and understood, and that aim runs through It’s a Shame. The song speaks to anyone who has felt alone in a bad pattern, and it offers a way out at the end.
So, for a first listen, start with It’s a Shame on Spotify, then move to her latest single to hear where she has gone since. Follow the drums through the first chorus, and listen for the turn in the last lines.
BestMusic.News’s curator team:
“Plenty of breakup songs blame the other person. It’s a Shame keeps the camera on the singer, admits the pattern, and still finds room for hope by the end. That honesty is why it holds the top spot in her catalogue.”
Follow Mhairi Jasmine on Instagram, TikTok, X, Facebook and her YouTube channel. Stream her music on Spotify and Apple Music, and find more on her official site.
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