The county's newest rising pop star is about to embark on her sold-out, nationwide tour after gaining millions of hits on TikTok and in the UK charts.

Mimi Webb has now revealed all to KentOnline speaking about her roots and life growing up in Kent and the release of her debut album.

Mimi talks about her music teachers in Kent

The singing sensation is working with the same record label behind the likes of Mariah Carey and Camila Cabello but before this it was her music teachers at Kent College, Canterbury who first realised her musical talents and potential.

She said: "My piano teacher said 'can you play something and sing'. I said I can do Someone Like You by Adele and sing it at the same time. I started singing and he was like 'oh my gosh what is this' and got all excited.

"I was thinking 'what have I done'. I was thinking I had played the wrong chord. I was freaking out.

"The guitar teacher at the school - I had done a bunch of stuff with him like band night - he got involved. They were saying 'Mimi you need to do this properly. You need to really go for it'.

"It was one of those moments that was definitely a turning table for me. If they are reacting like that then I have definitely got to do it and it was always something I wanted to do but it feels impossible when you're at that stage."

The 21-year-old said their reactions gave her the confidence boost she needed to pursue music further. The school even rung her mum, Sue, after she had sung the Adele cover to tell her she needed to give music a real shot.

Since then Mimi has gone onto amass over 200 million streams with both of her recent singles Dumb Love and Good Without peaking in top 15 on the UK Singles Charts, with the latter steadily climbing up the Top 40 of Billboard’s Adult Airplay and Mainstream Airplay charts in the USA.

Both songs also held their spots in the charts at the same time, marking her as the first UK female artist since Dua Lipa in 2017 to have two singles in the top 15 before the release of her debut album.

Speaking of her EP release titled Seven Shades of Heartbreak, Mimi said: "It was just so crazy. My life has done a 360 and I think it has made me grow as a person massively and really realise what matters. I am just very happy with it.

"I'm just looking through social media seeing the reaction everyone's been having and it has honestly just been incredible. I couldn't be more grateful and I am so excited to see what it does in the next few weeks."

Her career really started to take off during the pandemic where she was introduced into the world of TikTok by American influencer Charli D'Amelio whose video in 2020 starring Mimi's song took off with 6.1 million likes to date.

Mimi added: "You release music in the pandemic and TikTok and Instagram were the only ways I could connect with people and try to get my songs moving.

Mimi showing her mum her music

"It has just been such a crazy turnaround and I have absolutely loved every second of it and this year I couldn't be more happy and grateful for, it is so great."

Mimi now has 1.2 million followers and 22.8 million likes on TikTok which she uses to tease her music even including her friends and family in videos.

She said: "My parents are so supportive to be able to do those videos with them. It was so much fun.

"I genuinely never really let them into what I was doing because I signed in LA at 18. I was living in Brighton before that, I moved away from them to study at music college and then I was back home and we were in the pandemic and I was just writing in my room.

"There was never really any communication about what I was doing in my career until we started doing the TikToks and they were hearing the music and they were like what is going on.

"From there we just put the songs out and saw it in the big wide world just to see how the songs translated from TikTok into the real world."

When she was only 16, Mimi moved to Brighton to attend the British Institute of Modern Music but before then lived in Gravesend and Medway before their family moved to Canterbury which she says was a massive part of her life.

Mimi paid a visit to her old stomping ground at Kings Pre-Preparatory School, Rochester earlier this month where her mum worked and cousins also attended.

She added: "I was there at a very young age but it was so much fun to be there - just being able to speak to young people who are looking to find their passion.

"It was so much fun to give them advice and the people that wanted to get into the music biz. I loved it."

Mimi visiting Kings School, Rochester

Her advice for young people who want to become musicians is to write loads and loads, collaborate with others, use social media to their advantage, organisation and to network.

She added: "You are going up the stairs, don't go back down. You don't need to go one foot back, keep going up. Don't drop back down because you're feeling scared or worried. You have to just keep going. Follow it through - you have all the time in the world."

The Adele-inspired singer will be heading back out on tour on Thursday with her new EP Seven Shades of Heartbreak which is available to stream now.

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