Mimi Webb Is Ready to Level Up

Sometimes, stars are born. In the era of rapid-fire social media events, the potential path to stardom skews a little differently than it did a couple of decades—or even five years—ago. And if you play your cards right, it might just skew in your favor. In the case of the young British pop singer Mimi Webb, whose debut album Amelia came out earlier this month, a girl from Canterbury, Kent, is in the process of seeing all her dreams come true in real life in real time—thanks to a little boost from TikTok.

Mimi Webb was born Amelia Webb in England's quaint countryside, but "One hundred percent, I always knew [a star is] what I wanted to be," she says. "I'd always try and be the center of attention." She found her voice in choir at eight and by ten, she was already writing music, piecing together lyrics and ideas for melodies, and performing her songs at home for family and friends when everyone was gathered together for Christmas. Her powerful alto-soprano was a natural gift and her parents were immensely supportive, enrolling Webb in afterschool music programs and in dance and acting classes. At sixteen, she moved two hours away from home to Brighton, where she lived with a host family while attending the BIMM Institute, where the seeds of her future career were laid. "I was 24/7 around music," she recalls. "Every year, the more I learned, the more I grew." Alongside her progress, her desire to perform on bigger stages grew, too. At eighteen, she signed with Epic Records.

During the Covid-19 lockdown, Webb was nineteen, newly signed, recording songs at home over Zoom—including her UK chart-listed single "Good Without," which she released in March 2021. Today she has more than 1.4 million TikTok followers, but her rise to fame began before she even had an account, when American TikTok star Charli d'Amelio introduced her to the app. Together, they made a video, with Webb singing a song she'd written just a few months prior. It went viral—and her millions-strong fanbase exploded into existence essentially from scratch. That was when "everything changed," she says. By the time she left on her first international tour last year, her fans were ready. "Coming from the pandemic and releasing music in the pandemic on TikTok and Instagram to then being the front of a real fan base and real people instead of just numbers on social media was so cool," she reflects. "You really start to feel the effects of your career moving. It all feels so worth it."

Professionally speaking, Amelia, Webb says, is a step in a new direction: "Everyone is really going to get to know me as a person, not just as an artist, in this album." She describes the release as a nuanced depiction of her two selves. "Amelia in the countryside, sweet girl," she explains, "and then Mimi's traveling the world, performing, living the dream. It's that whole journey and process of growing in general, finding who you are," she says. "I didn't want the album to just be a load of different things put together, but there's a song for everyone."

Leading up to the album's release—and in the weeks since its launch—the London-based 22-year-old artist has been hard at work in a constant cycle of writing, touring, interviewing, and performing, while her fanbase in Europe and the UK continues to grow. She has no intention of slowing down. "I want to do bigger and bigger shows," says Webb. "I'm super excited for festival season and to really start to smash it out in America. I'm really excited to level up for the new era."

Amelia is out now. Webb's European tour continues tonight at La Madeleine, Brussels.

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