Mae Stephens on If We Ever Broke Up and supporting BLACKPINK: "It's so overwhelming"

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Mae Stephens is one of the 2023's brightest new names. Her first Top 20 single If We Ever Broke Up truly transcended its TikTok virality to become the biggest debut track by a UK artist globally, now with over 140 million streams and counting around the world.

It's a success that came somewhat unexpectedly to 19-year-old Mae who, at the time of its release, was working a regular 9-to-5 while honing her craft.

Today, we sit down with Mae to reflect on her 2023 so far and look ahead to her fruitful future (which includes supporting K-pop BLACKPINK at this summer's BST Hyde Park, no big deal). "It's genuinely been the scariest and most exciting experience of my life," Mae says of her success so far. "It's all gone so fast that I have no clue which way's left or right any more! "The switch from going from very little exposure to having so much support from everyone - for being weird and who I am as a person - has been exciting and incredible, but also really overwhelming.

You never expect that amount of support to come from something; especially as I went through such a rough time at school." Mae details her formative school years as difficult, but important in shaping her artistry. "As far as I was concerned, nobody liked who I was," she explains. "This is something's that changed my entire outlook on everything. "It's been interesting to have people who were absolutely horrible to me at school - I was kicked down some stairs, had my shoes filled with water, had my hair cut - now message me to say 'you're doing incredibly, I'm so proud of you!' is something I can't quite explain.