FEATURE:
Modern Heroines
Part Forty-Nine: Little Mix
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THIS is a first in this feature…
PHOTO CREDIT: EUPHORIA.
as I am highlighting a group who have recently lost a member. That means that, in terms of highlighting their latest album (and when it comes to thew playlist at the end), we get to hear Little Mix as a quartet rather than a trio. Their original member, Jesy Nelson, left the group after almost a decade with them. It is worth highlighting the incredible group a decade after they formed. Also, Little Mix were honoured at the BRIT Awards last week. I shall come onto that. First, I wanted to draw some background and biography about Little Mix from Wikipedia:
“Little Mix are a British girl group formed in 2011 during the eighth series of the British version of The X Factor. The group consists of Jade Thirlwall, Perrie Edwards and Leigh-Anne Pinnock; former member Jesy Nelson departed the group in December 2020. The first group to win The X Factor, they signed with Simon Cowell's record label, Syco Music. They released a cover of Damien Rice's "Cannonball" as their winner's single, which debuted atop the UK Singles Chart upon release. The group are known for their strong vocals and signature harmonies, as well as their representative songs about female empowerment and unity.
Being one of the most successful acts to emerge from The X Factor, the group has since earned four more UK number-one singles: "Wings" in 2012, "Black Magic" in 2015, "Shout Out to My Ex" in 2016 and "Sweet Melody" in 2021. Each of their albums, DNA (2012), Salute (2013), Get Weird (2015), Glory Days (2016), LM5 (2018) and Confetti (2020), have peaked in the top five of the UK Albums Chart, with five of the albums certified platinum to 3× platinum by BPI. Their fourth album, Glory Days, became the longest-reigning girl group number one album since the Spice Girls' debut album 20 years earlier, and the highest first week UK album sales for a girl band since 1997. Throughout their career, the group have sold over 60 million records worldwide, making them one of the best-selling girl groups of all time.
Winners of three Brit Awards, British Single in 2017 with "Shout Out to My Ex", British Video of the Year in 2019 for "Woman Like Me", and Best British Group in 2021, they have also received six MTV Europe Music Awards, two Teen Choice Awards, five Global Awards and nine Brit Award nominations. Get Weird Tour was the biggest-selling UK arena tour of 2016. As of March 2021, Little Mix have five platinum certified albums and twenty-six certified singles in the UK. In the media, Little Mix has appeared on Debrett's 2017 list of the most influential people in the UK, Forbes' 30 Under 30 list in 2018,[9] on the Sunday Times Young Rich List for four consecutive years, from 2017 to 2020”.
Little Mix made history last week by being the first all-female group to win Best British Group at the BRIT Awards. The Independent reported the news (as did many others):
“Accepting the historic prize, the group’s Leigh-Anne Pinnock read a prepared speech from her phone which began: “We have been together for 10 years. It’s been the best years of our lives. We’ve gone through so much. We’ve had so much fun and made so many incredible memories.”
She went on to thank Little Mix’s fans, their former bandmate Jesy Nelson, and their entire team. She added: “It’s not easy being a female in the UK pop industry. We’ve seen white male dominance, misogyny, sexism and lack of diversity. We’re proud of how we’ve stuck together, stood our ground, surrounded ourselves with strong women and are now using our voices more than ever.”
The group’s Jade Thirlwall then took over the speech, saying: “The fact that a girl band has never won this award really does speak volumes. So this award isn’t just for us, it’s for the Spice Girls, Sugababes, All Saints, Girls Aloud, all of the incredible female bands - this one’s for you!”
The group’s victory follows the news that two out of three members are now pregnant”.
It is interesting that there will be this natural hiatus as motherhood beckons. I think that this will affect future Little Mix material in terms of themes and sound. As the group have such an enormous fanbase, I wonder whether tour dates for 2021 and early-2022 will be popped on hold - though I think 2022 is the earliest we will see Little Mix tour. It is clear that a lot of people will want to see the group on the road as soon as possible.
The new version/remix of Confetti featuring Saweetie is fantastic. The trio spoke with NYLON about the track and recent developments in the camp:
“In January, the band scored their fifth number one single; a month later, they were named as Glamour UK’s “Gamechangers in Music,” and are currently up for top British Group at the 2021 Brit Awards — not to mention, just days after this interview (their first stateside as a trio), Pinnock will announce that she is pregnant with her first child. “We started 2021 as ‘Sweet Melodies’ went to number one, which was just an amazing pick-me-up after the time we'd had locked down,” says Edwards. “We were just so excited to get back. During lockdown, I think it really hit home how much we missed doing it all, and how much we love it.”
In a way, the Saweetie remix of “Confetti” is a perfect celebration of where Little Mix is at right now: it’s fun, it’s free, and it is, above all, a celebration of girl power. “There’s always room for female empowerment,” Pinnock says. “I think that's what we do best. So we absolutely love having females on our tracks — it's good to have as many females on board as possible when it comes to collaboration. Saweetie on ‘Confetti’ was just perfect. She's definitely someone that we feel like embodies that.” The song itself is a feel-good banger of a pop anthem, ready for the days when we can all actually get to the club again — something the band is conscious of when choosing what music to put out at this time. “Everyone is just ready to go out and have a boogie, and I think we've got some really good songs coming out that [can help] people do that,” notes Pinnock.
Until then, the band has a provided a fake club for the track, thanks to its tongue-in-cheek music video that sees the girls dressed up as their male alter-egos, facial hair and all. While “one of the funniest days of [her] life,” according to Pinnock, the shoot was not without its struggles. “I was like, ‘Oh, this is such a sick idea, can't wait to be a dude,’” says Edwards. “Then the second they started putting the prosthetics on, I literally couldn't breathe. I was like, ‘Oh no. This is a bad plan.’” The concept, however, is something they’ve been wanting to do for a long time, and at this stage, they’re done holding anything back. “We’ve reached this point where we're like, ‘Yeah, let's do anything that we haven't quite been able to execute before, or haven't ticked off our list yet of things we want to achieve as a band,’” says Thirwall.
That mindset comes partly from the past of year being put on hold, but the band’s entire history has also been leading up to it, in a way: this year marks ten years of Little Mix. They’ve got nothing left to prove. “When we first got put together, we were so excitable and a bit naive to everything. We sort of went along with what we thought we should be,” recalls Thirwall. “We were just figuring out who we were ourselves. We had to grow into women in the public eye, which was a lot to take on. In the middle of all that, we had a little bit where we felt constantly scrutinized and judged for who we were and what we sounded like and tried to like gain credibility as a band coming from a reality show, and just being a girl band in general.
“As the years went on, we just started to care less and less,” she continues. “Now, we're at this point where I feel like we've earned the right to be exactly who we want to be unapologetically, and use our voices more than ever, and wear what we want, look how we want, and not really care as much about what other people think.”
When talking about 2021 and what’s to come, the band uses the word “era” often — as in, buckle up Mixers, we are on the precipice of a new era of Little Mix. “We're feeling a lot of creative freedom. We're pushing the boundaries, and we’re doing things creatively that we maybe hadn't done before,” Thirwall says. “We just want to have good energy, good vibes this year.” Adds Edwards: “Sticking together is the most important thing. Sticking together and having each other's back. We would have fallen apart without that.”
“I don't think people can say anything to us anymore — we have stood the test of time,” chimes in Pinnock. “We've been together for 10 years. What band can really say that?”
I want to wrap things in a bit with a couple of reviews for Confetti. It was one of last year’s finest Pop albums – their sixth album was the final one to feature Jesy Nelson. It is well worth listening to as, since their 2012 debut, DNA, the group have really grown and blossomed as performers and writers.
Before getting to Confetti reviews, this article discusses a new documentary, Leigh-Anne: Race, Pop & Power, from Pinnock (I am writing this on 12th May; the documentary airs tomorrow) – where she (in the article) discusses racism in the U.K. and being the only Black member of Little Mix:
“The last tour, I remember coming off stage and crying most nights… and just being like, 'Why do I feel like this? Why do I feel like no one likes me? I might as well not be on the stage.'"
Little Mix's Leigh-Anne Pinnock has been making a documentary for more than a year about her experience as the only black member of her band. In the film, she speaks to other people - including fellow musicians - about racism in the music industry. I spoke to her in a quiet studio in East London.
"The lack of diversity is disgraceful," the Shout Out to My Ex singer says about the wider media industry, ahead of her BBC Three documentary Leigh-Anne: Race, Pop & Power. "So, I think however I can… be an ally, then that is what I want to do.
"We all know that racism is a massive horrible issue in this country and I really wanted to delve deeper into it.
"It was important for someone like me to do something like this as well [because] I do have such a predominantly massive white fanbase and the people that I feel like I could reach by doing this documentary is massive. Why wouldn't I put myself out there and do that?"
Although racism is the subject of the documentary, Leigh-Anne also touches on colourism - when a lighter-skinned person is favoured over a darker-skinned person due to the shade of their skin.
Leigh-Anne says: "I wanted to use my voice to address colourism because I am so aware of how awful it is and it is just something that needs to be spoken about.
"I know my privilege and I do address it in the documentary. What I address is that I know that if I was some shades darker that I wouldn't be in the band. I think that was so important for me to address because it is true.
"We know there aren't enough dark-skinned women that are being represented so that was something I really felt like I needed to talk about."
She adds: "I wanted to speak about my experiences and the way I felt in the band, being the black girl in the band and people identifying me as the black girl. I really wanted to explore why I felt so overlooked, so shadowed and it was down to my colour”.
PHOTO CREDIT: BBC
It is, as I said, a bit strange focusing on the catalogue of a group who have only just existed as a trio. I think that Little Mix still sound fresh and inventive after a decade. The loss of Nelson was hard - though I feel we will see a few more albums from them. One can debate that they are iconic already and have a huge legacy. I think this will be cemented and highlighted as they put out more music and tour Confetti this/next year. In their review of the album, this is what CLASH noted:
“With the success of their recent singles, including ‘Break Up Song’, the highly anticipated 'Confetti' is all Little Mix fans could ask for and more. From an increase of R&B influences, meta critiques on the music industry and driving forward with their empowering agenda to be every girl’s best friend, the four of them continue to challenge the world around them and better it for the young women that follow in their footsteps.
Jesy, Perrie, Jade and Leigh-Anne’s passion can be felt in all aspects of this album, from the writing to production, they took the driving seat. Being in control of the work they put into the world allows for the band’s authenticity as artists and people to shine through. Once again demolishing any idea that they’re a tokenistic girl band and presenting their true artistic capability as performers.
‘Happiness’, along with tracks like ‘If You Want My Love’, prove that Y2K isn’t just an aesthetic style this year but has bled into all creative fields. Touches of R&B, the nostalgic beats and the impeccable harmonies that the four produce offer comfort with their familiarity and still manage to feel progressive with the 2020 take on these classic elements of an iconic music era.
The undeniable star of the album is ‘Not a Pop Song’. The misleading title of the pop song sets the stage for a meta critique of the very genre in which the band have found their success. They mock the topics that they themselves observe and in turn, not only show their versatility, but that of the genre itself.
And if you need a pick me up, ‘Gloves Up’ and ‘My Love Won’t Let You Down’ are there to pump you up, comfort you and empower any listener. As we enter Lockdown 2, we need positive music, empowering tracks and an auditory hug, all of which the band have gifted to us in this near perfect pop production”.
I think it is sad that there is not a larger and more diverse market of girl groups. In the 1990s and early-2000s, there was such a bustling and competitive scene. In many ways, Little Mix are part of a dying scene. I feel they will inspire other girl groups and compel a brief resurgence.
To end, I wanted to pull in The Independent’s view on Little Mix’s incredible and confident sixth studio album, Confetti:
“Little Mix’s last album was mired in controversy. Released just days after it was announced that the British quartet had split from their label Syco, 2018’s LM5 was a confused mix of influences that reflected how the group were being pushed and pulled in different directions. Its follow-up, Confetti, is by contrast a fierce and mercifully coherent statement of independence.
Since they formed on The X Factor in 2011, Little Mix have traded in Girl Power, often taking cues from the movement/brand’s pioneers, the Spice Girls. They’ve become experts at the kiss-off anthem, from their early hit “Shout Out to My Ex” to Confetti single and opener “Break Up Song”, which races along a pulsing, Eighties-influenced synth beat. Further into the album, the genre gets a clever twist on “Not a Pop Song”, with its thinly veiled digs at former label boss Simon Cowell: “I don’t do what Simon says/ Get the message ’cos it’s read.”
Little Mix’s new talent show, The Search, seeks to form a group inspired by the ones who dominated the charts when members Jade Thirlwall, Leigh-Anne Pinnock, Jesy Nelson and Perrie Edwards were pre-teens. This approach has clearly inspired the album too, with “If You Want My Love” and “Happiness” nodding to the silky R&B of groups such as TLC and Destiny’s Child. “Rendezvous”, while an album highlight, sounds an awful lot like “Buttons” by the Pussycat Dolls – for the most part, those retro influences mesh wonderfully with contemporary pop production”.
After their BRIT Award triumph, I was keen to include Little Mix in this feature. They have existed as a quartet for so long, it might take a little while until they fully mesh as a new trio. It is overdue that a female act won Best British Group. This win will bring new fans to Little Mix. I have been following them for a few years; they have definitely matured and strengthened. They say that not all that glitters is gold. In the case of Confetti, that is certainly…
NOT the case.