Noah Kahan’s song “Maine” went platinum this summer. (Ben Houdijk/Shutterstock.com)

When Noah Kahan’s song “Maine” went platinum this summer, he posted an Instagram story with the announcement and a photo of a sunset over the water, saying that he and his friend, Phin Choukas, “made it in a few hours.”

“Forever my favorite,” he added, a sentiment he’s repeated about the song, recorded during the early days of the pandemic when he fled New York City for his home state of Vermont.

But as much significance as the track has for the 28-year-old singer-songwriter, it might be greater for our state.

Although Maine is a frequent setting for books and movies, it doesn’t get as many mentions in music. Not in the 60 years since Roger Miller decided to make Bangor, Maine, the destination for his midnight train has there been a more popular song to reference the state.

But unlike in the country hit “King of the Road,” which uses the locale as a convenient rhyme, Maine is the name and the heart of Kahan’s song — the chorus of which repeats “I wanna go to Maine” — even if it’s more about what the place represents: a happy time in a relationship that has since ended.

It’s the last song on a five-track EP called “Cape Elizabeth,” inspired by his idea of the town where his girlfriend’s father lives. Kahan hadn’t been there yet when he released the record, he told music journal Atwood Magazine in 2020.

That soon changed. He posted a video in August 2020 of him playing “Maine” on acoustic guitar on Crescent Beach (which is referenced in the song) and tagged his girlfriend as the one the behind the camera.

 

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Her father declined a request for an interview last week — understandable considering Kahan felt the need to ask his fans last month to stop showing up at his family members’ homes in Vermont.

Kahan, whose public relations firm and record label did not return messages seeking an interview with the singer, doesn’t talk publicly about his relationship much, but acknowledged his engagement in a dedication to his fiancee (reportedly now his wife) in the liner notes for a vinyl edition of “Stick Season,” the 2022 album that catapulted his career and led to a Grammy nomination for best new artist.

His legions of fans have since discovered his earlier music, and “Maine” has become among his most played songs on Spotify with over 192 million streams (150 streams counts as the equivalent of one download toward the 1 million required for platinum certification).

 

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That’s not including the partial plays it gets on social media, where it’s been used as the audio for more than 17,300 Instagram reels — of pink-and-orange sunsets, Portland Head Light and lapping waves, as if sponsored by the Maine Tourism Association. (L.L. Bean did actually capitalize on Kahan’s New England-rooted popularity by collaborating with him on a clothing line.)

The song, which Kahan has said is the only one of his that he listens to, is a mainstay of his concert set lists, and he recently performed it live with Mumford & Sons and Maggie Rogers, who has her own Maine ties, having gone to summer camp in Raymond (where she filmed the music video for her song “Dog Years“) and spent part of the pandemic at her parents’ house in Scarborough.

Kahan last played in Maine in 2022 at the State Theatre and has since outgrown every venue in the state. Last summer, he sold out two nights at Fenway Park, where his special guests included Gracie Abrams, another pop star with family in Maine and songs that share their names with Maine towns (Augusta, Camden and Rockland), though the lyrics don’t reference anything specific about the state.

But with all these Maine-connected musicians currently on the pop charts — including “Sally, When the Wine Runs Out” singer Role Model, who is actually from Cape Elizabeth — perhaps the prevalence of our state in song is about to change.