Amelia "Milly" Toomey was born on 6 December 1997 in North London. She began her solo career in 2014, choosing a stage name inspired by Blondie, with an attention-catching aesthetic that was part cyberpunk and part J-Pop. She struck out on her own, performing at all the local open mic nights that she could find, which eventually caught the attention of BBC Radio 1. Her inventive sound combined the futuristic pop of Charli XCX, the cheek of Lily Allen, the attitude of M.I.A., and the genre-blurring tendencies of Grimes.