Gretel offers up new single ‘Darkness Be My Friend’

Gretel - fka by her moniker of Gretel Hänlyn - has rounded off 2025 with one final new release. 

The London-based songwriter has returned with a reflective new number, ‘Darkness Be My Friend’, which showcases her ability to create gorgeous, shadowy offerings that still bear a resilient heart. 

“I wrote ‘Darkness Be My Friend’ the day before we went in to start re-recording my next project the new unfamiliar way – I was scared and didn’t know if I had what it takes,” Gretel says, of the track. “It was dark but it was exciting. Recording live in this way challenged me way more as a musician than before, and it’s given me a huge desire to go forward and get better and tricksier with it in future. I feel like I’ve only just been born.”

Her latest track lands after the release of her previous two singles, ‘Maybelline’, which landed in October, and ‘Unbloom’, which came out in June. The three tracks follow on from her stand-out 2024 single ‘Far Out’, which have all helped to flesh out and colour this new era of her career.

Listen to ‘Darkness Be My Friend’ below.