NEED TO KNOW
Despite being the daughter of an ’80s pop star and music producer, Mabel is working to forge a path of her own.
During an appearance on Michael Dapaah’s Comfortably Speaking on Wednesday, July 23, the “Don’t Call Me Up” singer, 29, addressed the nepo baby claims.
“I work hard every day,” she said.
Added Mabel: “I’m still so hard on myself and I work really hard at it every day, I try to be kinder to myself, but it was definitely initially about the things that I felt about myself and the expectations I had set for myself from a super young age.”
For Mabel (born Mabel McVey), coming from a family of musicians, she says she felt pressured by those “expectations.”
“People either set the bar here or they set the bar here, because they’re like, ‘Oh well you’re a nepo baby, so like you’re s— basically,” she said.
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Mabel’s mom, Neneh Cherry, rose to fame with her 1989 album Raw Like Sushi, which included hit single “Buffalo Stance.” Meanwhile, her father Cameron McVey, is a record producer behind acts like All Saints and Massive Attack.
Elsewhere in the conversation, Mabel opened up about nearly ending her music career as she struggled navigating her twenties.
“It wasn’t possible [to keep up], I mean it nearly ended the relationship with what I loved the most, music,” she said. “It is impossible to deliver, in my opinion, an authentic creative product, because that’s what it is when you’re in the business.”
Mabel continued, “In your early 20s, you’re trying to figure things out because who knows who they are or what they’re doing.”
Mabel rose to fame after the release of her 2017 single “Finders Keepers,” which peaked at No. 8 on the U.K. Singles chart.
On Friday, July 25, the singer will release a self-titled EP. The project will follow her 2022 album About Last Night…, 2019’s High Expectations and 2019’s Ivy to Rose.
In November of last year, Mabel got engaged to label executive Preye Crooks — and she said on Comfortably Speaking that her parents cry “all the time” of joy.
