‘Full circle’: Pop duo M2M to return to Singapore with new songs

SINGAPORE – More than 8,000 days had passed since Norwegian pop duo M2M went away, but as childhood friends Marit Larsen and Marion Raven discovered when they made their music comeback in 2025, millennials will never forget the lyrics to the soundtrack of their youth.

Even after cementing their status in pop culture with Y2K classics like Pretty Boy and Mirror Mirror from their debut album Shades Of Purple (2000), M2M stuck around for less than three years.

They eventually disbanded in 2002 due to poor record sales from their second album The Big Room (2001).

It seemed, however, that their sudden disappearance only made their return more impactful.

Raven, 42, recalled that while planning for The Better Endings Tour, which included a Singapore stop at The Star Theatre in May 2025, they did not know whether they would be playing for “10 or 100 people”. 

“And then we sold out. It was for thousands of people,” she said, speaking to The Straits Times on a Zoom video call with Larsen, 43, from Norway. 

Their surprise at the enthusiasm they received from fans has not quite worn off, even after a year.

When Raven and Larsen decided to go on tour, they had just rekindled their friendship. Now mothers in their early 40s, they simply wanted to rewrite a better ending for themselves and celebrate the 25th anniversary of their first album. 

Instead, they were blown away by their fans, who still remembered every word to their songs.

A particular clip from their opening night in Jakarta summed up their experience: They gazed out at the cheering crowd reminding them that they were never forgotten. Overwhelmed by emotion, they were unable to start singing on cue. 

As more audiences responded similarly, the momentum confirmed a gut feeling they each had from the start: The tour was not so much a better ending, as it was a new beginning. 

After writing for a year together since their reunion, M2M will return with The Two Tour on March 27, 2027, making Singapore their first stop in their new chapter.

“We realised the fans in Singapore have really kept our music alive. We all felt like teens again – us on stage and the people in the audience,” recalled Raven of the energy a year ago.

This time, fans will also hear brand-new material written in M2M’s signature confessional tone, now with an added layer of maturity to ground their breathy vocals.

Though secretive about their fresh repertoire for now, Larsen said: “The overarching theme is that we’re still trying to figure out the world we’re living in and the relationships we have, like we did way back then. Of course, our brains are different now, and (songs are) a fun tool to investigate the world with.”

Age and experience have also brought a new appreciation for their dynamic. 

Once easily annoyed at each other over their differences when they were younger, they now realise that their contrasting personalities and voices are, in fact, their “superpower”. 

After leaving M2M, the pair pursued solo singer-songwriter careers. But, Raven joked, if one of them had gone to work in a corporate job, they might have struggled to write songs together again. 

As it was, their songwriting connection picked up where they left off after two decades, leaving them feeling “really good” about their new creations. Even when they started singing together again, their voices “fit together right away”.

Looking back, Larsen sees the value in the decades spent pursuing their individual paths after discovering pop music together as teens. “Now, we get to bring all of what we learnt and our different tastes (to this new chapter). It feels very full circle,” she said.

Long-time fans would likely say the same. The pop landscape where M2M first emerged no longer exists, but seeing pop stars who defined the millennial childhood return decades later does evoke a time when the world felt wide open and optimistic. 

“Something happened in the room” on the first tour, Larsen said. 

“It felt like people connected to each other for the first time in a long while, and also connected to their former selves – a time in their life that they had maybe forgotten. They got to sing these songs again at the top of their lungs, and feel connected to something pure, innocent and full of hope.”

Book it/M2M The Two Tour 2027 – Singapore

Where: The Theatre at Mediacorp, 1 Stars Avenue
When: March 27, 2027, 7pm
Admission: $158 to $348 via Ticketmaster (go to www.ticketmaster.sg or call 6018-7645). Pre-sale starts on Oct 28, from 10am to 11.59pm, while general sale begins on Oct 29, 10am