FEATURE: Spotlight: XO — Music Musings & Such

FEATURE:

Spotlight

XO

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ALTHOUGH their mini album…

Need to Know, is not out until 16th October, there is a lot of excitement and buzz around a great British girl group. On 26th June, Spice Girls’ Wannabe turns thirty. It was first released in Japan. It has got me thinking about the girl groups of the 1990s and how there was this great scene. Perhaps less common now, there are a few terrific British girl groups reviving the scene. FLO and Say Now among the frontrunners. I feel XO – though I am not 100% keen on their name, or FLO and Say Now’s -, are going to be around for many years. I want to come to some interviews with Summer Askew, Shali Bordoni, Zoe Miller, Emmy Statham and Reanna Sujeewon. The quintet released their debut single, Lovesick, last September. Their members hail from Liverpool, Hong Kong, Essex, Derby and London, so you have this blend of local cultures, accents and stories. They bring this into their music. Their different personalities and energies mix beautifully and harmoniously. Not to compare them with Spice Girls – though I hope they don’t mind me doing so -, I do hear a tint of that in their music. Also, U.S. heavyweights like Destiny’s Child. Though some would say they have more in common with more modern girl groups like Little Mix. I am being guided by Rolling Stone UK for a few features, as they provided their recommendations for the future of music in 2026. This is what they said about XO:

“XO – the group formed of Summer Askew, Shali Bordoni, Zoe Miller, Emmy Statham and Reanna Sujeewon – are the latest British girl group eyeing up world domination. And from what we’ve heard, we wouldn’t put it past them. ‘Real Friends’, which arrived last year, is a Charli XCX-penned paean to female friendships, while their latest release ‘Hotline’ is an all-out banger.

There are big tunes, but also a sense of empowerment too. “What we really want to get across is that idea of being very confident within yourself,” says Reanna to Rolling Stone UK. “We’re all very different people but we’ve come together so easily and we have space for everyone.” An all-embracing mantra, then, which will no doubt come in handy when world domination beckons…”.

I do wonder what XO planned for the summer. They have their album out in the autumn and some live dates to promote it. Before that, there will be this desire to see them perform. Perhaps some more singles from the album. I would love to read more interviews, as they are a fascinating group. However, there is an interview form last year I am starting out with. There are a couple of chats from last year, in fact. The first is one I referenced for a recent feature about girl groups and the likes of XO. Whilst not as intense and busy a scene as the 1990s and 2000s, there is this growing girl group market. XO very much among the very best. Rolling Stone UK spoke with XO last year around the release of their debut E.P., Fashionably Late:

“What’s the story behind your formation and how did you land on your sound?

Shali: Do you know what’s really weird, with the music, we never had a conversation about what it was exactly that we wanted. We all come from performing backgrounds and we’e all danced a lot, so whenever we heard a track it was case of wondering can we groove to it? That was a question before we even assessed genres.

Zoe: That’s it with the EP as a whole, it’s so important to us that the music is just fun and we’re trying our best not to overthink anything because we grew up with the 2000s era, people like Fergie. They just did what they wanted, they had a good time and it was all the vibes in the world. We want to bring that back and just have fun. Make people feel good, let loose and let your hair down.

The Fergie comparison is interesting. Was there any other girlbands you liked growing up?

Zoe: We’ve got to give a nod to the Spice Girls, because they’re iconic.

Shali: Girls Aloud, the Sugababes, Pussycat Dolls. like they’re so iconic.

What’s the things you’ve bonded over aside from music?

All: Food!

Zoe: Horrible taste in men!

Summer: It’s funny because we were lucky enough to go on a schools tour which we were quite sceptical of to begin with, because we had no fan base and we were starting from the ground up with no idea of how these songs were gonna sound. But that was so important, because we built our bonds that way and that was really important for us, going from London to Glasgow for 8 hours. You’ve got to get along and then on stage as well, it was such a great opportunity and something happened. The first time we got on stage was in a school in the middle of Birmingham and to see the journey from that first performance is mad. We’re interacting with each other, we’re a team on stage.

What’s the role of a girlband in 2025 when groups like Blackpink and Katseye have shown that the whole sound and image of such a thing has changed?

Shali: There’s space for everyone. We all bring something different to the table, whether that’s the size of the group or the genre of music. Because we can never do what they do like them, but we did see them in London and it gave us a little kick up the ass.

Reanna: What we really want to get across is that idea of being very confident within yourself. We’re all very different people but we’ve come together so easily and we have space for everyone.

And finally, Zoe you’ve talked about world domination in 2026. Tell us more…

Zoe: We’ll have a cozy Christmas, go into hibernation and hit the ground. At New Year you’ll see the fireworks and then just start hearing our song ‘Ponytail’ everywhere. We’ve got more music, bigger tours and 2026 will be the year of XO!”.

This is a girl group that built their fanbase performing at schools. Now they are playing big venues and will play some amazing venues in November. Included is Manchester’s Academy 3. NME spent time with XO last year. Even though they are their own groups, I would like to see collaboration and interaction between FLO, Say Now and XO. A chat about the current scene and the music and girl groups they admire:

“They’re certainly hungry to deliver it. XO’s five-member line-up was pieced together in a single day in September 2024 by Colin Barlow, a record exec who worked closely with Girls Aloud, and London-based Massive Management, whose roster includes All Saints singer Shaznay Lewis. Like hundreds of other hopefuls, the five talented young women talking to NME today answered a “very vague” ad in showbiz newspaper The Stage – “Can you sing and dance? Do you like the Pussycat Dolls?” – and turned up not knowing what to expect.

On the day, prospective band members were whittled down relentlessly as their auditions were filmed on Steadicam. “It was like, bang bang bang. Dance, cut! Sing, cut! Dance, cut!” Miller says. “And then it got to about 8pm,” Bordoni continues, “and [our managers] pulled up five chairs and were like: ‘Congratulations, you’re in the band!'”

The new members of XO were so in the zone that they didn’t realise until later that they already had connections: Askew and Statham used to compete against each other at talent shows. “Literally, as I was about to run off to get my train back to Liverpool, I was like, ‘Can you all just give me your name and number so I can make a group chat?'” Askew recalls.

Four members of XO grew up in different parts of the UK, while Bordoni spent her formative years in Hong Kong. A week after their audition, they reconvened in London for their first official band meeting, where their managers played them a selection of demos. “The very first song they played was ‘Ponytail’,” Sujeewon says, name-checking a rhythmic earworm from the EP, “and we loved it immediately. It’s become a real fan favourite.”

XO say they had no problem finding a unified musical vision because of their dance backgrounds. “When we get the choreo done for a song, it’s like boom, it’s ours,” Statham says. But once they bonded over a shared love of beat-driven 2000s bangers by Timbaland and Black Eyed Peas, they began to put a stamp on their sound. ‘Silly Boy’, a strutting highlight from ‘Fashionably Late’, was co-written by the band after a familiar experience of everyday sexism.

“We’ve learned so much from each other. We’re a team now” – Emmy Statham

“We were in an Uber because TfL wasn’t working – classic! – and we drove past this pub full of football men going ‘wahey!’ at us,” Miller recalls. “And I was like, what if we wrote a song about being catcalled on the street, with a whistle as its motif?” Bordoni adds. Five months later, they brought the idea into a songwriting session with artist-producer Upsahl (Dua Lipa, Madison Beer), who helped them to flesh it out. “That song was a big moment for us,” Statham says. “We love seeing fans sing it back because it came from our hearts.”

They won’t have to wait long before this happens again. XO have just announced a second UK headline tour for May 2026, including a show at iconic Glasgow venue King Tut’s, and promise more new music “early next year”. They’re not touring schools anymore, but given that grounding, do they think of themselves as role models? “I’m not gonna act any certain type of way just for someone to look up to me,” Miller says. “But I’m not going to act like a dickhead either.” Bordoni chips in: “We’ll never act differently, we’ll always be ourselves. That’s our biggest thing as a band: we want everyone to feel confident in being themselves”.

I am going to end with an interview from this year. Official Charts featured XO around thew release of the incredible single, Hotline. This chaotic, fun and deeply connected group are definitely going to be play huge festivals. I feel they might make it to Glastonbury next year. Headline slots await them. They have the talent to be around for many years to come:

“Hey girls! Happy Hotline release week. How are you feeling?

Reanna: We're obsessed, we can't stop smiling!

Emmy: I'm so glad it's out while the sun's shining!

Zoe: The EP was only out in October, but it feels like we haven't released music in years.

Shali: There's been so much anticipation between the five of us, we've been buzzing waiting for this to come out.

Emmy: Because we're all performers, to be behind-the-scenes is hard for us - we're just dying to get XO back out there again. We're so excited!

How did you know Hotline was the song to come back with?

Shali: When we first hear a song, we visualise the video immediately. In the video, we come out of the lift one girl at a time. Last year we wanted to establish our friendships and relationships between each other as a group, and this time we wanted to focus on each girl's individual characteristics. It's a bit of a reintroduction.

Reanna: It's completely different to when we first heard it. We rewrote parts of it, Zoe put in the middle eight, and engulfed it into the XO universe.

And this single leads into your debut mini-album, Need To Know...

Reanna: We're so excited! We've been sitting on a lot of these tracks for a really long time, even since the first EP, because we knew the journey that we wanted to take. We've come into this year with a 'boom!'; we know what we're releasing, we're just excited to get it all out. Last year was a lot of research and development in real life, we were learning as we went. Now, we've figured out the plan. We've got such sick things to come!

On the title Need To Know, what's one thing you think we need to know about XO?

Reanna: We're always laughing, nothing's ever that deep. To laugh through life is the best way to do it.

Shali: Absolutely, I'd say our humour. Between the five of us, we have really silly humour. Part of the reason why we prefer in-person experiences with our fanbase is because you're able to have that personal connection. We've got really exciting things planned this year that'll allow us to focus on that more.

Summer: It's all about the vibes, it's all about having fun. Nothing's that deep.

Zoe: We've got a lot of music coming out that isn't what people are expecting from us. That's really exciting. I don't know how much I'm allowed to say, but we're switching the vibes a little bit. Our job is creative, and it's so important to us to make people feel something new through what we're creating.

Emmy: We also want to learn from the artists that came before us and the team around us. We never want to lose the source of our creativity. When we go into a session, we don't deep it - it's vibe on vibe only. That carries through everything we do together. Ultimately it's a brand, it's a business and it can get quote confusing. But ultimately, we don't want to lose sight of why we find this so fun.

Shali: We really want people to get to know our individual styles, too. We have a shared passion and similarities, but each of us have different hobbies we enjoy.

It's always important to embrace that individuality, even when united by one vision...

Emmy: It's super rare. You couldn't get five girls who are, on paper so different, from how we dress to the music we listen to and what we do in our spare time. You'd think 'we'd never put them together' but, from our audition day, we just clicked straight away. That's something so special.

Zoe: If you imagine we were all still at school, it's like you've taken one person from each table in the school hall and put them together. That's be beauty of music. You might not be doing the same things, but you can be one. You don't have to look or sound like your best friends, you can be yourself and so loved and important”.

One of the leading lights of modern British girl groups and Pop in general, the extraordinary XO marry elements of U.S. groups and U.K. ones of the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s. Above all of that is their individuality. They are not a group led by committees and happy to sing any words and dance any way. They definitely have that determination to be true to themselves and have that sense of personality and authenticity shine through. If you have not yet connected with this fabulous fivesome, then spend time with…