'I’m a singer who performs to thousands – you'd never guess my background'

Being a young carer for her mum inspired Fiaa Hamilton's passion for music - and now the singer is a TikTok sensation. Read about her incredible journey to stardom here

Being introduced onstage by Jason Derulo to perform her hit single to thousands of people is not always how Fiaa Hamilton could imagine her life going.

“I’m a typical child in care that should never have the opportunity to be a full time music artist. Society says that we shouldn’t,” she said ahead of her performance at TikTok Live Fest.

Hamilton was chosen to perform at the event hosted by Derulo celebrating TikTok creators around the world. With her long dark hair, gem stones placed daintily around her eyes and a little black dress, Hamilton was the image of a pop star - though she was “super nervous”.

She admitted: “Hopefully those nerves disappear when I go onstage and I can just be in the moment.” If the audience’s response to her performance was anything to go by, she certainly achieved that.

Her path to stardom is somewhat unconventional – as she wasn't born with celebrity connections. At the age of eight, Hamilton, who is from the outskirts of London, became a young carer for her mother who was unwell with bad mental health.

“I just started singing to her and I saw how happy it made her, so I said why don’t we sing about how you’re feeling,” she said. “At eight, you have no idea how to look after someone who is struggling, so we sat there and wrote lots of words down and made it into a song. I haven’t stopped writing songs since.”

Despite having written music for years, Hamilton had never had the confidence to show anyone, that is, until she was approached by TikTok Live and told about streaming on the social media platform. “I tried a livestream and showed all my original music,” she explained. “It was just magical from that moment, I saw so many people loving what I was creating.”

She has been on the path to success ever since – but refuses to forget her humble beginnings. Instead of getting fully sucked into the glitzy music industry, she continues to think about topics that are close to her heart. And mental health is one of them.

Mental health has continued to be a key theme in Hamilton’s music and one of her songs called My Mind was written to raise awareness and was inspired by another care leaver. “I met a girl on TikTok Live during a battle [where streamers go head-to-head to try to get the most likes or reactions from viewers] who was in hospital. She was a care leaver and had struggled with mental health. I went away that night and wrote My Mind,” she said.

“The next day I said ‘I’ve got a song for you, let’s do another battle,’ and I showed it to her. To this day she has changed her whole life around, she now works in a children’s home and is going live and signed to TikTok as well. It’s been amazing to see.”

Hamilton’s biggest song, and the one she performed at TikTok Live Fest, is Love War . Released early last year featuring lyrics like “You said goodbye / but can’t take all the heartbreak / so we’re back and forth just like before / we’re stuck in a triangle / it’s a love war,” the single quickly went viral.

The moment was unexpected, Hamilton said. “I genuinely didn’t know what to do with myself, I was on the phone to my best friend and she said ‘I’m just going to check out how Love War is doing’ and she said ‘Fiaa, its just gone up in the last five minutes to 10,000 people using your sound, Fiaa it’s now on 20,000. It was just crazy.”

“I still to this day get loads of people using it and people going ‘oh my god I saw your song on an advert’ and I’m like ‘this is what I’ve been waiting for’, a moment where my songs just get brought further and further through this world” she added.

Hamilton has released music through the traditional route, and fans can stream her songs on Spotify, but her main success is on social media. She performs every day of the week except for Thursdays on livestream and it is now her full-time job. Being able to be an independent music artist working in the entertainment industry makes her feel “very privileged”.

Her story has made a real impact – and at the end of last year, the singer picked up the TikTok Live Breakthrough Star Award and the Gimme The Mic Most Inspiring Award. Seeing herself on a billboard in central London was another particularly “pinch me” moment.

Her message to young people currently in care is that they are “worthy” and, despite what society may be telling them, “anything is possible”.

“I worked incredibly hard, I did a master’s degree in music at the same time as working a full time job to be able to do that, so the universe gives you the opportunities that you deserve when you work hard. Believe in yourself and just go for it.”

Hamilton has another song coming out in the spring called Nothing Is Perfect. “It’s probably the best song I’ve ever written and I love the message within it,” she said. Ultimately, the singer said her songs are about her journey and “inspiring others”.

Performing on the same stage as Swedish mega-star Zara Larsson is just the beginning for Hamilton, but she is savouring the moment. “Never in my life did I think this would be me, and it is.”