Photo Credits: MDDN Records
South African tennis professional turned folk artist Luke Beling releases his new single and music video, ‘Done With The Trying’ via MDDN Records and 10K, the second release from his upcoming album Sea Queen, set to arrive later this year.
Luke Beling is a South African-born singer-songwriter whose folk-inspired music mirrors the everyday stories with an emphasis on honesty and the “miracle and labor” of life. Drawing inspiration from artists including Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan, Beling has cultivated a sound that reflects on the vibrancy and grit of his homeland.
Since COVID-19, he’s released six self-written albums and EPs, before getting signed to MDDN in early 2026. In addition to his musical journey, Beling is also a published author, having debuted his first novel “The Field of Plenty,” in 2024, followed by a short story collection in 2025. He now calls Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, home where life as a husband and father to four daughters continues to shape his perspective on the beauty, chaos, and human approach to storytelling.
Accompanying the release is an official music video shot in Hawaii, where Beling now lives, capturing the track’s themes of solitude and finding peace in uncertainty.
A reflective meditation on emotional exhaustion and the limits of control, ‘Done With The Trying’ finds Beling confronting the point where pushing for answers only makes things harder and learning instead to let go.
“I’ve spent a lot of my life trying hard. Partly my nature, partly a youth spent pursuing a professional tennis career. Nobody taught me the other half: how to rest, how to let go, how to be okay with a small life,” Beling says.
Beling describes his new single as:
“I wrote this song because I realized the things I actually want now don’t come from white-knuckling it. And even the dreams that do take work turn on you past a certain point: more effort often feels like a finger trap, tightening the harder I pull. This song is me learning to let my hands go slack.”
Written from the perspective of someone who feels they’ve exhausted every option, ‘Done With The Trying’ captures a weary, spiritual reckoning with the realization that sometimes there are no immediate answers. Rather than continuing to force change, Beling learns to accept uncertainty, embrace stillness, and make peace with what he cannot control.
The accompanying video, which is available to view on Beling’s YouTube, brings that feeling to life against the natural landscape of Hawaii. Moving between moments of solitude and serenity, the visual reflects the vulnerability of feeling lost while finding freedom in stepping away from the struggle.
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