The pop star talks Grenfell, getting beaten to No 1 by Ed Sheeran and her unconventional childhood
Gastroenteritis doesn’t care if you’re a pop star. It’s not bothered if you have to drag yourself out of bed to appear on the Capital Breakfast show at 8.30am and then head across town to cover Mark Ronson and Camila Cabello’s Find U Again for Radio 1’s Live Lounge. You might have a debut album out that week, but gastroenteritis doesn’t care about promo. “It started last week. I’ve been travelling loads – America, Europe, Asia, back to America. I was doing a shoot when I started to feel tired and nauseous and weird,” says Mabel
Alabama Pearl McVey. A few hours later, she’s throwing up side of stage before being whisked off to hospital where they initially diagnose appendicitis because she’s in so much pain.
While most of us would be under the duvet watching Cash in the Attic, for this 23-year-old there’s no such thing as a sick day. When I meet her at a central
London restaurant after her live session at Radio 1, she is sprightly, noting her Live Lounge was “possibly my best yet”. She had to cancel in-stores and signings, but she’s still doing some promo (such as this interview), plus, bizarrely, appearing at the
British Grand Prix, where she does a lap in a car and presents a pole award at the qualifying round – because her debut album just came out and she wants it to hit the top spot.