IF YOU live in the area you may already have heard Kelly Pepper (yes, her real name) as she took to the stage at the Danson Festival earlier this month.
The teenager has been singing since she was five but at the tender age of 19 is releasing her first single.
Kelly, who grew up in Bexleyheath, did two courses on songwriting before being signed by independent label Baby Girl Music management.
And if her first single is a top 10 success Konvict Musik, the label which produces Akon and Lady Gaga has promised to release her second single in Europe and America, marketing her as the British Lady Gaga.
No pressure then on debut single, Miracle Man which she described as “a lot of fun really.”
She explains it is about looking for a boyfriend but not being able to find him as the criteria makes him too perfect, a Miracle Man.
“I like to not be too deep with my songs. I want my music to be really upbeat,“ she admits.
The former Bexleyheath School pupil describes her sound as pop/dance: “A bit Britney but a little bit cheesier.”
The oldest of four children she has the support of her family with her dad, Gerald, who owns Pepper’s builder’s merchants, garden centre and fireplace studio in Avenue Road doing his bit to promote his daughter’s music by sending leaflets out to his customers.
The dance track has been initially targeted at the gay community with Kelly performing at Gay Pride events in Gran Canaria and back at home in London’s Trafalgar Square with thousands hearing her music.
She says: “It was amazing, fantastic. A lot of the guys that watched me have come to other Gay Prides.”
Along with Butlins gigs there is a possibility of her supporting another Kelly, ex-Destiny Child’s Rowland on her European tour.
But she would most like to support her idol, Lady Gaga: “She’s got some amazing stage presence. She’d be really inspirational to watch.”
And despite her slightly cheesy vocal inspirations, Celine Dion and Whitney Houston, Kelly is determined not to go down the manufactured pop route, saying of the X Factor competition: “It’s all sort of fake. You have to have a sob story. It’s not about the talent, it’s about how you get the sympathy from the public.”
It looks like she does not need a sob story, she is doing it all by herself.
Miracle Man is released on September 21.
Listen to it at myspace.com/pepperedmusic
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