Mimi Webb on lockdown fame and the power of TikTok
With her first Brit nomination and a debut album and headline tour on the way, British pop star Mimi Webb is about to hit the big time
The Covid pandemic lockdowns might not seem like the obvious opportunity for an ambitious teenager to achieve global fame but, given Mimi Webb found a love of music listening to Adele, Amy Winehouse and Emeli Sandé in her bedroom, it makes a strange kind of sense. Inspired by the way these artists provoke an emotional reaction with their songwriting, she began putting pen to paper at her home in Canterbury, before turning to every Gen Z’s first port of call for, well, everything: the internet.
In 2020 Webb went viral on TikTok when Charli d’Amelio featured her single Before I Go in a video, garnering the track 85 million views and 25 million streams on Spotify. From there, Webb became a TikTok sensation in her own right, posting videos of herself singing, and never looked back. “TikTok has completely changed the whole industry, it has done a 360,” she says of her rise to fame. “I think it’s a really amazing [tool] for people who don’t have access or don’t know how to get into the industry; they can get a TikTok up and tease something.”
The downside of lockdown superstardom? The bit about being locked down. Despite gaining a huge following (at the time of writing Webb has 1.3m followers on TikTok and 261k on Instagram), Webb says it didn’t feel real until she started performing for live audiences. “Being an artist from the pandemic and having to start my career through lockdown, I never got to see the change in person,” she explains.
“When I started to do my own shows and come back into the real world, that’s when it really started to kick in. To walk into the pandemic with no fan base and [come] out with a huge one was just amazing. I couldn’t have asked for a better outcome.”
Image: Hayley Louise Brown
Image: Annie Reid
2022 also saw Webb perform at the Platinum Party at the Palace during the Jubilee weekend, alongside the likes of Queen, Alicia Keys, Andrea Bocelli and Diana Ross, to an estimated TV audience of 200 million people.
“A lot of these things can go so fast and all of a sudden you think, ‘Hang on a minute, when did this begin and how is it nearing the end?’ It’s so crazy,” she says of the occasion. “Afterwards I met Andrew Lloyd Webber, he’s incredible and I’m a massive fan, so to have him come up to me and ask me for a photo and know who I am was incredible. Just to be in that environment and to feel the emotions and inspiration behind it all, it was just one of those things that I’ll never forget.”
With ten singles now under her belt, 2023 will finally see Webb release her debut album, Amelia, on 3 March, and the singer is understandably both excited and jittery about sharing it with the world. “Now that the day is getting closer and closer, I’m definitely getting the nerves,” she says. “I always thought [I would get there] but I never knew when that day would come where I would be able to drop an album, so as it gets closer it feels more and more real.”
Amelia is inspired by the two sides of Webb’s personality – the homebody and the international jet setter. “My real name is Amelia and I really wanted to tell a story about how Amelia was this countryside girl who had this dream and Mimi is traveling the world and constantly living her best life,” she explains. “I wanted to tell the emotional journey of [that] and show that I’m not just one thing, I’m made up with all these different things.”
In support of her new album, Webb is also embarking on a headline UK tour this spring, following a successful run in Australia in September 2022. “It just felt like I was on a different planet, it really did,” she says of her time in Oz. “The jet lag was such a big thing because, obviously, the timing is so different to the UK but it was incredible. If I wasn’t going there for work it would have probably taken a good 20 years to get over there because it’s so far. To be able to go there and do what I love was just a dream come true.”
As if you needed any further evidence of her rising star status, Webb was nominated for her first Brit award in the Best New Artist category in 2023, alongside names like Wet Leg (who ultimately took home the gong) and Rina Sawayama. The moment she and her family found out about the nomination there were lots of tears. “I was just shocked and honestly couldn’t believe it. My initial reaction was, ‘You must be joking!’ We were so excited. It was definitely a pinch-me moment.”
Amelia is out on 3 March 2023.
