Mabel almost quit music after intense stress and scrutiny saw her ‘living in fear’
THE world was at Mabel’s feet in 2020 as she racked up three Top Ten singles in six months and scooped the Best Female Brit award.
But the singer-songwriter has told how she was hating her experience so much that she was left questioning whether she had a future in the industry after months of living in total fear.
She returned on Friday with her brilliant second album, About Last Night, which looks set to debut at No1 on Friday.
But it was only made possible by a complete life revamp which resulted in her finally getting her mojo back.
In an exclusive interview with Bizarre, Mabel explained: “I was super overwhelmed with everything.
“I was not prepared to be out there on stages in front of thousands of people or to be doing award shows aired to the whole world.
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“Then you’re going out there in fear of what people might say about you. You manage to get through it but you couldn’t give your all because the fear was there, and it’s crazy what fear will do to your mind and your body and your voice.
“Then afterwards you get negative comments about it then you have to do it again. You end up in this cycle of not being able to perform. It knocked my confidence a lot.”
In a world where being on social media is key to commercial success as a pop star, she would beat herself up about comments about her online.
She continued: “I was stressed all the time, constantly feeling what I was doing wasn’t good enough.
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“It would be difficult to sleep. And I had this constant fear thinking, ‘I’m going to do this interview but I feel like I’m being set up because they don’t like me,’ or, ‘I’m going to do this shoot and somebody said online that I look like I’ve gained weight’.
“I was so involved in other people’s thoughts about me to the point where I didn’t even know how I felt about myself.”
Mabel continued: “You can’t not read it. That’s why I had to get rid of it for a bit. If you go looking, you’re going to find, and it’s really bloody hard to not look because I think in a sense we all want validation from people.
“As artists, we want to be liked. I want to be as big as I can be, I want to appeal to as many different people as I can and I always think of my journey as an artist to be inclusive not exclusive.
“But along with opening yourself up to everybody, you are allowing people to judge you and everyone is entitled to have their opinions. And it can still be difficult.
“It felt like a hamster wheel. I felt like I didn’t know what I was doing and how to do things.”
During her five years in the industry she has had hits including Don’t Call Me Up, Mad Love and Finders Keepers.
But it was her family, including her musician mum Neneh Cherry, who helped her find happiness again outside of music.
Mabel said: “Lockdown ended up being this time of really spending time with my family for the first time in a long time.
“I needed my head cleared just to think about what I wanted to do with my next steps in life.
“I thought, I need to move forward with positivity and I knew I hadn’t been enjoying it.
“From the outside it would have looked like everything was amazing. But I really wasn’t and I knew something had to change.
“That was when I really started thinking about this album and how if I was going to make music again, that it had to mean something to me in a different way.”
She has made a concept record about a night on the tiles and although she confessed its release has been “frustrating” – given the lead single Let Them Know came out a year ago and there have been some false starts along the way – she feels vindicated by leading the race to No1.
On the prospect of scoring her first chart-topper, she added: “I obviously really want it. It wasn’t on my radar and now I’m like, ‘that would be incredible’.”
But the most important thing for now is that she has found a way out of the darkness which surrounded her for years
“It’s about redefining success. If I’m not happy, I’m not really successful.”
MABEL has been flexing her acting muscles in the videos to her new tunes and it has given her the taste to do it on the big screen.
She released the latest clip for her ridiculously catchy song LOL on Monday – from which I have this exclusive picture – and she found it a lot of fun.
On the prospect of taking acting seriously, the singer said: “I would love to. Doing it in these videos was the first time I’d ever tried.
“I’ve really enjoyed it and I would love to learn properly and do something.
“Right now it’s all about my music and I still have big goals for what I want to do musically. I want to be a global artist and making more tunes will always be my first love.
“But I would absolutely love to act at some point.”
I had girl obsession
ONE of the standout songs on her album is called I Love Your Girl – and Mabel says it came about after she became “obsessed” with her ex-boyfriend’s girlfriend.
In the track she sings: “I think I love your girl, wish it was me that was with her.”
Although it is partially about comparing herself to another woman, some fans have suggested it could be an LGBTQ+ anthem.
She explained: “First of all, everyone should love whoever the f*** they want to love, so there’s that. But I wrote it about an extremely personal situation.
“One of the first times I thought I was in love with someone, I found out he had had a girlfriend for many, many years and obviously he hadn’t told that to me.
“When I found out, I was upset about him, but I became so obsessed with his girlfriend.
“Even though it has absolutely nothing to do with you, you start thinking like, ‘What does she have that I don’t have? To be fair, she’s really pretty, she seems really nice, she goes to the gym . . . I’m kind of obsessed with her’.
“I became so engrossed. I took it to this extreme level where I was like, ‘She seems kind of great, I don’t blame you’.
“And we just thought we should write about that. There was a time when I went a bit crazy with it so I wrote it as stalker-ish, as it was.
“I’ve got over it, by the way, but we all have those moments when you go through heartbreak, you go through so many different stages of madness
“I was just obsessed with his girlfriend for a while.”
Reflecting on her past romances she reckons she can see where she went wrong.
She added: “I always get so hopeful but when I actually look back at it now I’m like, ‘Ah, OK, I didn’t feel good about myself so I was looking for relationships where people were treating me the way that I felt about myself’.
“Now I’m in a relationship but the toxic men, I can smell them from a mile off.
“You have to go through those things and they gave me some really good songs.”
Getting ready to mix it
HER pals in Little Mix released a song she wrote called Trash on their 2021 album Between Us and they could soon work together again.
Mabel’s close friend Raye has been in the studio with Leigh-Anne Pinnock, while Jade Thirlwall and Perrie Edwards are working on their own projects too.
She said: “I am such a big Little Mix fan and I love writing tunes – the songwriting process is one of my favourite things
“The song came so quickly and the Little Mix girls heard it and I love them. I was like, ‘If they want to sing it, let’s do it’.
“They’re all going to do their individual things and I hope to work with them again.
“I love all of them. I’m excited to see what they will do – they’re all going to smash it.”
Steven hits the Marc
HE has blockbusters including Jaws, Saving Private Ryan and Westside Story under his belt.
But movie director Steven Spielberg has now made his music video debut.
He has shot a promo for Marcus Mumford’s solo single Cannibal, the lead track from his upcoming solo album Self-Titled.
Insiders revealed how Steven filmed the video on his phone in one shot, with his wife, Kate Capshaw, helping him.
Steven’s long time assistant, film producer, Kristie Macosko Krieger, also worked on the film.
It was a family affair for Marcus too as his actress wife Carey Mulligan is credited for doing the sound and costumes.
Marcus said of his first ever solo music video: “I’ve been overwhelmed by the support of the people around me to bring this music to you.”
“I cannot hope to express all of my gratitude. When people get it, it blows my mind. Kate and Steven just got it, and I cannot thank them enough. Thank you Kate. Thank you Kristie. Thank you Steven.”
Bieber better
NOTHING can keep Justin Bieber down, he is heading back on the road and just weeks on from falling ill.
The Peaches singer was forced to cancel dates on his Justice World Tour last month after suffering from Ramsay Hunt Syndrome, which left him with facial paralysis.
He is now preparing to get back to business and will make his comeback at the Lucca Summer Festival in Italy on July 31 before continuing with his European dates.
Justin will be coming to the UK on February 8 where he plays his first night in Glasgow, before heading across the UK – including four nights at London’s O2 Arena.
Ciao you doing, Adele
ADELE has jetted off to Italy – but only for a holiday, as all hopes of a tour have been dashed.
The Hello singer was photographed yesterday morning boarding a boat in Sardinia with her sports agent fiancé Rich Paul.
Her outfit cost thousands but she has money to burn after closing down her touring company, Remedy Touring LLP.
The firm was set up to deal with the profits from her last global jaunt, which made £161.5million in profit.
But yesterday it was officially wound up according to documents at Companies House.
If she does tour in the future, it is expected her finances will be dealt with in the US rather than the UK, hence the decision to close her company here.
That is yet another sign she has no plans to move back to England any time soon.
But she looked in good spirits while back in Europe on her romantic getaway.
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Larking about dockside, she wore a £1,100 shirt, matching £725 trousers and carried a £1,860 Yves Saint Laurent bag.
Clearly there is no financial need for her to head off on another global jaunt just yet.