Introducing You to Little Mix

This blog post is an introductory to the band so you can get to know key facts about them.

The X Factor:

Little Mix were formed on and won The X Factor in 2011. Tulisa Contostavlos mentored them. Members Perrie Edwards, Jade Thirwall, Leigh-Anne Pinnock and Jesy Nelson auditioned as solo artists. The judges felt there was something missing in each of them and thought they would be better as a group. The judges were looking for that new fresh girl group. Perrie had first been put in girl band Faux Pas but it didn’t work. Jade had auditioned twice before, being only 15 one time. Originally, Little Mix were called Rhythmix but they had to change their name as a music charity already had that one. The girls stayed at Perrie’s house to rehearse for the Judge’s houses where they were like sisters, going shopping in Camden, watching movies, having fun sleepovers. After The X Factor, Perrie and Jade, both from South Shields, North England, shared a flat in Notting Hill. It was a huge change for them.

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DNA:

The band’s first single from DNA (2012), written by them to inspire people, was ‘Wings’, a jubilant pop song about following your dreams and ignoring haters. The first time they performed it live was at music event, T4 On The Beach (2012). Another meaningful DNA track, ‘Always Be Together’, for Leigh-Anne, is about the girl’s friendship, and Jade’s interpretation is a dead loved one always being there with you. In the album Little Mix experimented with different styles of music, some songs were quite rocky like ‘Madhouse’ and others upbeat and pop like ‘Wings’ and ‘How Ya Doin’?’. Their colourful hair in the ‘How Ya Doin’?’ music video promotes Schwarzkopf’s hair dye Live Colour XX. DNA made it to the top 10 albums in 10 different countries, including the UK and US.

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Salute:

Their 2013 Salute album was more R&B. Jesy wanted lots of dancey R&B songs in it. Their cover of Cameo’s ‘Word Up!’ was used for 2014 Sport Relief. Salute debuted at number four on the UK albums chart.

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Get Weird:

Their next album Get Weird (2015) is super-upbeat and pop, including the catchy ‘Black Magic’. At the Teen Choice Awards, Little Mix dressed as geeks, like in the ‘Black Magic’ video, and Jade pretended to fall and drop her books for fun! ‘Black Magic’ and Get Weird broadened their fanbase. Get Weird is more mature-sounding. It features more grown-up songs such as ‘A.D.I.D.A.S’ (All Day I Dream About Sex). Little Mix struggled to come up with songs for their third album, writing over 100 songs that were scrapped as they weren’t keen on them. Before ‘Get Weird’, they were despairing with the possible danger of their label dropping them. The ‘Get Weird’ track ‘I won’t’, co-written with Jess Glynne, is about not giving up when they were at risk of being dropped.

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Glory Days:

Little Mix’s fourth album Glory days (2016) was the number 1 album for 5 weeks on the UK albums chart. It was the longest reigning number 1 album from a girl group since The Spice Girls. Little Mix were an opening act for Ariana Grande’s Dangerous Woman Tour (2017).

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LM5:

Their fifth album, LM5 (2018) has a feminist message with songs like ‘Joan of Arc’ and ‘Woman’s World’.

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Christmas Single:

Leigh-Anne wrote their first Christmas single, ‘One I’ve Been Missing’ (2019).  

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Clothing and Beauty:

In 2013, Little Mix made a children’s clothing brand with Primark for 7-13-year-olds. They have also made four perfumes called ‘Gold Magic’, ‘Wishmaker’, ‘Wishmaker Party Edition’ and ‘Style’. In 2018, they released, ‘LMX’, a stylish make-up range.

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Anti-Bullying Campaign:

In 2014, Little Mix helped BeatBullying with their major project, #DeleteCyberbullying. They backed The Big March, which campaigned for new European laws to stop bullying and cyberbullying.   Embed from Getty Images