Mabel believes “hard work” is the key to her success – not her musical parents.
The 29-year-old singer is the daughter of Neneh Cherry and producer Cameron McVey – but Mabel has rubbished the idea that she’s a so-called nepo baby.
During an appearance on the Comfortably Speaking podcast, Mabel explained: “I work hard every day.
“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.”
Mabel admits that she struggled to cope with outside “expectations” earlier in her career.
She said: “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.'”
Mabel released her debut album, High Expectations, in 2019. However, she almost walked away from her music career in her early 20s.
The Finders Keepers hitmaker said: “It wasn’t possible [to keep up], I mean it nearly ended the relationship with what I loved the most, music. It is impossible to deliver, in my opinion, an authentic creative product, because that’s what it is when you’re in the business.
“In your early 20s, you’re trying to figure things out because who knows who they are or what they’re doing.”
Earlier this year, Mabel revealed that she “needed a lot of therapy” to cope with the stresses of the music business.
The pop star told the Miss Me podcast: “I needed a lot of therapy.
“I needed medication. Then everybody’s like, ‘You’re difficult, you’re emotional, you’re a nightmare’.
“I don’t know how much fight I have. I’m constantly fighting.
“I love what I do so much, but how long I will fight for? I don’t know, which is really sad.”
Mabel also feels frustrated that she’s constantly being compared to her Grammy-nominated mother.
She said: “Basically, all the time I used to get, ‘Oh, she’s generic. Her mum was one of a kind and she’s just like a whatever pop star’.
“And I’m like, well, I signed at 18, and I’ve been given no real support. There’s no duty of care.”