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Kimiyah, 7, is working to become Bermuda's biggest star

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Kimiyah Simons, 7, has released a single, OK OK (It's Just Me) (Photograph supplied)

At seven, Kimiyah Simons is focused on becoming a star.

She celebrated her birthday yesterday with the release of her first single, OK OK (It's Just Me).

With Cardi B as her inspiration, she created the freestyle rap after school one day. Look for it on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok under her stage name, Kandy Kaash.

"I just like singing and dancing," said Kimiyah who moved to the UK with her parents Kimeka and Kenneth Simons at the age of three.

With a goal of becoming "the biggest and youngest star out of Bermuda", she also acts, and is a signed model with South Coast Kids London Agency.

The youngster is being guided by another Bermudian, Jahdia Spencer.

"I act as her manager and PR," said Jahdia, who also has a full-time PR job with a reinsurance company. "I have a modelling agency in England, where I provide a lot of models for music videos. So I work with a lot of artists. She saw [what they were doing] and one day was like: let's make a rap.

"So I picked her up from school and we got some ice-cream and me, her and her auntie just came up with [the song]."

It helped that Kimiyah was somewhat familiar with the process, having already made several YouTube videos for her own amusement.

Jahdia said: "I realised that in the UK there's no kid artists and in America it's such a big industry. These kids are making so much money over [there] so we thought we'd just try it out."

Response on social media to the "multitalented" Kimiyah has been good, she said.

"Her Instagram tends to get a lot of views even though she doesn’t have many followers. One of her videos has 12,000 views and she only has 100 and something followers – she's quite entertaining."

Degreez TV has helped promote OK OK (It's Just Me)locally but most of Kimiyah's fans learnt of her through "word of mouth".

"We've been promoting it for quite a while and we did a preview on Twitter, which had over 500 likes," Jahdia said. "This was [early last summer] where it was just literally her in her unicorn pyjamas in front of her doll house, rapping and stuff.

"From that little video, where she was freestyling, everyone loved it. And she's of the age where she knows more [about social media] than me, especially with TikTok."

"Weirdly enough" the former Loyal Hill, Devonshire, residents discovered they were once again neighbours in London.

"We didn’t even know," said Jahdia. "We'd lost contact and then we saw them on the street. They live right across from us."

Once reconnected, she and Kimiyah became "best friends“, which led to OK OK (It's Just Me). Attracted "because Dora was on it", they chose a free beat from YouTube and got started.

The cover of Kimayah Simons’s single, OK OK (It's Just Me) (Photograph supplied)

"We made the song and then a couple weeks later – like I said, because of my business I know quite a few people in the industry – I had a friend who had a studio and we went over there and did the studio session within two hours."

The music video was released on YouTube via local music platform Degreez TV.

Kimiyah is hoping that Bermuda continues to support her; OK OK (It's Just Me) premiered on Vibe 103FM on Friday. The song is just one part of the brand she is creating as Kandy Kaash. Ask her about it and she will say: "This is my life boo; gotta get that money honey."

What drives Kandy Kaash

Kimiyah Simons has a goal of becoming Bermuda’s biggest star. Below, is a list of the seven-year-old’s favourite things:

Song: Money by Cardi B

Candy: Sour Patch Kids or Skittles

Lip gloss: “It’s this edible one that tastes and smells like bubblegum.”

TV show: Karma’s World on Netflix

"She has a few business ideas, mainly skincare and clothes," Jahdia said. "But people in Bermuda are, almost proud – she's so young. Everyone's like, this is a good thing. Everyone has been supportive. We're hoping she can collaborate with other Bermudian artists like Kaelyn Kastle. Get some girl power in there."

Through her frequent visits, Kimiyah's favourite memory of Bermuda is the ocean.

On her list of goals for 2022 is to learn how to play the guitar. She claims to already be at work on another song.

"She's just started reading and learning how to write so I think the rhyming will be a bit easier for her now," Jahdia said.

Follow @kandykaash on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. For more information: kandykaash@gmail.com