Mackenzie builds on her Road To Victorious win with debut Portsmouth headline show at Edge of The Wedge

Fast forward to 2025 and the Portsmouth-born singer-songwriter was indeed on that stage – not as a headliner (yet) – as part of the prize for winning that year’s Road To Victorious competition, which gives up and coming acts a chance to win a career-boosting package.

As part of that prize she got to play at a string of festivals, culminating in a slot at her hometown’s big event.

And now tonight she’s playing her first headline show on home turf, at The Edge of The Wedge in Southsea. Taking inspiration from artists like Avril Lavigne, Taylor Swift, and Miley Cyrus her own brand of pop-rock has already picked up numerous plays on Radio1 and BBC Introducing shows.​

Mackenzie, 25, began performing in musical theatre as a youngster before realising aged 16 that her passion lay more in singing and songwriting.

After going to college and looking for a way into the industry, she studied for a music business degree, which unfortunately didn’t pan out as she hoped.

“I don't have any connections, I don't have a load of money, so I was like, how do I even begin to do this thing?

"I did a business degree but Covid hit and I never went in. It was really not ideal. It was good, but I didn't have the uni experience I was quite hoping for."

After graduating she started releasing solo material, “but again, I didn't know what I was doing,” she explains.

"I didn't even know how to put things on distributors. I was writing for a while and working with friends, I was posting on social media all this time, but nothing was really sticking.

"I had this moment of, okay, you need to do it now, or you need to just pack it in because you're not doing anything and this isn't working.”

This forced her to re-evaluate what she wanted from music: “Who do I want to be? What do I want to sound like? What do I want to say? And I needed a bit of life experience, I think, as well.

"I needed that being at the brink of failure to make me go: ‘no, I really want this’.

"It's so hard doing this, especially independently. I think sometimes you just need to know how much you want it, and how far you're willing to go.

"Those couple of years post-uni before I released I Hate July”, her January 2023 single, “that was my crunch-time moment. It pushed me to be like, I want this so much that I don't care.

“I'd seen the other side of it. And I wasn't happy. I'm not happy just having a job that doesn't bring me any joy.

"It taught me a lot about myself. And I figured out how I wanted to say things, what I wanted to say, and what I thought I could bring to people's lives that isn't already there with other artists.

“Now it's starting to click a bit more because I took a little bit of extra time, and I learned who I was. You don't know who you are at 17. You just don't – you think you do, and then you get a bit older and you're like, ‘ah…’

“You need to learn about who you are, especially if your artist project, like mine, is very based on who I am. There's no persona, there's no filter. It is all me and my experiences in my life.”

Mackenzie is fiercely ambitious – she intends to move to London at the end of the year, and then “hopefully conquer the entire world”.

But she adds: “I think that you've got to be delusional – there's got to be some delusion. Doing music in general, it makes no sense. First of all, we just make noises and then hope they sound good and then put them out. That's weird,” she laughs.

"But also, the whole way the industry's set up is very weird. It's not set up for you to be able to actually do it on your own.

"It's soul-destroying, it beats you back at every opportunity. I always describe it as a bit like a toxic relationship because you just get one little win, like you have one person DM you and say, ‘oh my God, this is me listening to your song in the car on the way to work’. And you're like, I'm a part of someone's life!

"And shows are just incredible. That's my favourite bit. I get so much joy and fulfilment off of seeing people enjoy what I'm doing in person. There's something so magical about that.

"So you get one of those things happen, or radio play or something, anything, and you're immediately like, ‘this is going to work, this is so good. I'm amazing’.

"But then the next week, you'll convince yourself that no one cares and it's awful. It's such a massive mountain to climb."

However, winning Road To Victorious gave the artist a major boost, as she played a run of festivals across England as part of the prize.

“I've been trying to put into words what it meant for the past year, but the only thing I can ever come up with is that the experience made me feel like the artist I always thought I was.

"I had such a great reception at these festivals, it was incredible.

“You come off the stage and you're just like, ‘oh my god, I actually think I can do this!’ I'm telling the band this, and they're like, ‘yeah, we always thought that, didn’t you know?’”

Winning also inspired her to build on the momentum it gave her, even before playing the summer shows.

"I knew how big an opportunity it was, so after I won it I did not stop for an entire month. I went everywhere I could possibly think of, I printed off posters, I printed off QR codes.

“Every gig I went to, I inserted myself to every conversation, I did not stop. I went on TikTok live for a minimum of an hour a day and had a little QR code on the screen and was doing covers and talking about my songs and everything.

"I think I went up 4,000 followers on TikTok just in that month because of the amount that I was doing. It was a lot, but it's not sustainable.

"I'd been doing my project at that point for two years and it's so difficult to get any kind of a breakthrough when you don't know anybody and when you don't have loads of money. You basically work to pay for the songs and then there's nothing left over for promotion.

"You're putting things out into the void on TikTok and hoping that something connects, but this was an experience that felt 'proper'.”

When it came to playing Victorious, Mackenzie realised she was on at the same time as Scouting for Girls on the main stage, who drew a huge crowd, and she feared no one would come to see her.

"But there were people there, it wasn't just my parents!” she laughs, “that was amazing.

“I went to Victorious when I was like 16, 17 and I saw Lewis Capaldi play that (Castle) stage. I looked up at the stage (when he was on) and I had that moment, which I think all artists do at some point, with any stage you go to, you look up at it and you go, ‘I'm going to play that stage one day’. You make a little promise to yourself, I'm going to do that. And I got to do it!

“When we came off, me and the band, we said this feels so nice, to be able to do what we feel like we're capable of.”

Seeing how well previous winners in The Road To Victorious – Crystal Tides and Harvey Jay Dodgson – have done since, has only spurred her on.

"It's really nice seeing people that you know and that you respect do really well. It makes it feel a bit more tangible. But also I think in general, we've just got to have so much delusion, where you're just like, ‘yeah, it's going to work. It's going to happen. I believe in it’. And I think if you believe in it, then it can't not happen!

“I had a little chat with the world and I was like, seriously, you can't put me through all this and then not do anything with it, so you're going to have to help me out a little bit here...”

Where Taylor Swift has her Swifties and Lady Gaga her Little Monsters, Mackenzie has her own growing band of dedicated fans – the Drama Queens, named for the title track to her EP from last year.

As she explains, the link she has with her fans “means everything,” it’s about building a community.

"Nothing happens if they don't listen or care – it is all about the fans, it's not about me.

"Everything I do – the merch, the videos, everything except the actual writing of the songs and how I want them to sound, because that comes from me, everything other than that is really for the fans.

"It's all just about trying to let them in on the process or making them feel understood.

“The whole point, for me, is to be able to have people understand their emotions through what I'm writing, or feel seen through what I'm singing about, or help them through a time in whatever way, whether it's happy, sad, whatever – just giving them that outlet.

"And seeing them in person is the best, that's why shows are my favourite thing ever. Being able to see them and see their reactions to the songs in person is just the best thing.

"I make friendship bracelets as part of my merch. I want to make sure there's something for everybody in the merch desk.

"I don't want you to come to the merch desk and think, ‘I have to spend a certain amount of money to be able to get anything’. So I do my friendship bracelets for a pound and even seeing people with these friendship bracelets on, and maybe they'll come to a couple of shows and they'll get a few of them, I'll be on stage and I can see that they've got bracelets on which is so cool.

“It feels like I'm creating a bit more of a community – a lot of them have found friends through each other.

"For this Portsmouth show, they've got a group that are coming and they're all meeting beforehand and everything. They all met through my shows and that's amazing. I'm part of someone's life in a way that I don't even know.”

She released a new single, Idiot of The Decade last month, and she teases that there’s more “coming.”

"I can't say too much yet because we're building, but there's a lot coming this year.

"I'm playing a new song at The Wedge that no one's heard – I haven't teased it anywhere. I'm excited to see the reaction to it. Literally the band and my family are the only people who've heard it, so that's going to be really fun.”

Beyond that, she’s been invited back to Victorious this summer – this time on the main stage on Sunday.

“I couldn’t believe it when they called and asked me to play the main stage, of course I said yes!

“I'm hoping that will be almost an entirely new set. I have so many songs sitting on my laptop and I just can't wait to get them out.

"Depending on how the year goes and depending on a few other factors, I'm hoping to get a lot more out.”

Mackenzie plays at The Edge of The Wedge in Southsea Thursday, April 24, with support from Lynnie Snow. Doors open 7.30pm. Tickets £10.

Go to: wedgewood-rooms.co.uk.