| Little Mix | |
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| Contestant Profile | |
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| Category | Groups |
| Mentor | Tulisa Contostavlos |
| Placement | Winners (1/16) |
| Gallery | |
Little Mix are a British pop/R&B girl group consisting of four members Perrie Edwards, Jesy Nelson, Leigh-Anne Pinnock and Jade Thirlwall.
There have been rejected at the boot camp as soloists in Series 8 of The X Factor UK, they were added together (much like One Direction) as a group, given a second chance at Judges' Houses, selected as finalists, and were mentored by Tulisa Contostavlos.
Due to the eliminations of 2 Shoes, Nu Vibe, and The Risk, they were the only act left in their category. They were crowned the winners, with Marcus Collins from the Boys category (mentored by Gary Barlow) declared runner-up. This made them the first-ever group to win the original series.
Little Mix became a successful group post-series, scoring a hit single with "Wings". Nelson later left the quartet, reducing them to a trio.
Performances[]
Post The X Factor[]
They are, alongside One Direction and Fifth Harmony, one of the most influential bands to have partaken in The X Factor. They have had 5 subsequent UK #1s (“Cannonball”, "Wings", "Black Magic", "Shout Out to My Ex", and “Sweet Melody”), a further 6 top 5 singles, and 25 top 10 positions in major charts with their albums, including 6 in the UK, with million selling albums "Get Weird" and "Glory Days" (and with all 6 debuting in the top 5, but only "Glory Days" going straight to no 1), and 2 in the US, where they were the first British girl group in history whose first album debuted in the Top 5, with limited promotion.
They have had a top 10 single in the UK in each of the 10 years since their X Factor victory ("Wings" and "DNA" in 2012, "Move" in 2013, "Word Up" and "Salute" in 2014, "Black Magic" in 2015, "Secret Love Song", "Shoutout To My Ex" and "Touch" in 2016, "Power" and "Reggaeton Lento" (with CNCO, from La Banda) in 2017, "Woman Like Me" in 2018, "Bounce Back" in 2019, and "Break Up Song" and "Sweet Melody" in 2020.)
In November 2018, it was announced that they had parted ways with Syco Music and signed to division label RCA Records, alongside 2017 winners Rak-Su. This occurred just a few days before their release of their 5th album, LM5. The album was preceded by the single "Woman Like Me", featuring Nicki Minaj, which became their seventh Top 3 single on the UK charts. The group then had a very candid interview with Asos magazine in which they opened up to mistreatment and feuds with labels in the early stages of their career. In September 2019, Jesy released a documentary titled Odd One Out about the mental health difficulties she suffered in the first few years after Little Mix won the X Factor. Earlier in 2019, Jade and Leigh Anne climbed Mount Kilimanjaro for Comic Relief.
In late 2019, Little Mix unveiled a new reality TV show for BBC called "The Search", though the COVID-19 pandemic forced it to be delayed until Autumn 2020, 6 months later than what was intended, and said to be a rival of The X Factor: The Band which was subsequently bought forward. The Search involved Little Mix forming 6 distinct groups from soloists, including boybands, girl groups, mixed-gender groups, and Grime crews, and got positive reviews, though there was only one of the three live shows with all 4 members present in person.
On 16 September 2020, Confetti was announced across multiple social media platforms by Little Mix, revealing the release date to be 6 November 2020, as well as the album art and the title. On 18 September, streaming services released pre-orders of the album. The standard edition has 13 tracks. On 27 October, Little Mix partnered with Amazon Alexa to release the official track listing. Fans were encouraged to say "Alexa, drop some Confetti" and they would receive a track name. The next day, 28 October, the full track listing was confirmed.
Little Mix have since become a trio in late 2020 after member Jesy Nelson left. She has since started her solo career, debuting with the single “Boyz” featuring Nicki Minaj in October 2021. It was met with quite a lot of criticism, specifically comments and accusations of her blackfishing in the music video and in general. Her performance of the song at the Jingle Bell Ball that year was also notably made fun of and one of her dance moves may even be considered as a meme. A conflict during the same year that Nelson released the song involving an Instagram Live with Nicki Minaj and fake DM’s, along with the blackfishing and how that possibly affected her relationship with former bandmate Leigh-Anne, ultimately caused her and the girls to not speak to each other anymore. Nelson recently announced that she has split from her record label, Polydor Records, and has reportedly been working on new music.
On 19 August 2021, which was their 10-year anniversary of their formation on The X Factor, Little Mix announced Between Us, a greatest hits album that would be released on 12 November of the same year. During this time and going on, there were speculations of the group breaking up or going on hiatus, but the girls persisted that they were going strong as a three and weren’t planning to stop their journey anytime soon. However, on 2 December, they announced that they were indeed going on a hiatus; the reasons for this were unknown, but they have expressed how they have enjoyed every moment of their time as a group and that they deserved a break; members Leigh-Anne and Perrie also had children that August so that was another reason why. In early 2022 they went on tour for Confetti, and on 14 May 2022 was their “Last Show (For Now…)”, where people all over the world could see their last show live online through a website called Dreamstage. This was a very emotional day for the girls, their crew, and of course, their loving and dedicated fanbase.
They’ve released 6 studio albums including DNA, Salute, Get Weird, Glory Days, LM5, and Confetti, released one greatest hits album Between Us, and have collaborated with many artists along the way. Missy Elliott, T-Boz, Jason Derulo, Sean Paul, Kid Ink, CNCO, Machine Gun Kelly, Charlie Puth, Stormzy, Nicki Minaj, Ty Dolla Sign, Cheat Codes, Sharaya J, Kamille, Nathan Dawe, Saweetie, David Guetta, and most recently Anne-Marie. Since the start of their hiatus up until now: Perrie has been reported to be working on new music in the studio, Jade has said she wanted to take a break for a bit, and Leigh-Anne currently has a newsletter but there haven’t been any major updates as of now; however she has a couple of solo songs because of the movie that she made her acting debut in last year, Boxing Day. All of the girls have said they wanted to support each other and also communicate to make sure there aren’t any conflicts when it comes to the charts and their separate music projects, and all of them say that “Little Mix is forever” and that they want to come back sometime in the future as a group again.
Discography[]
| UK Series 8 Finalists | |||
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| Amelia Lily • Craig Colton • Frankie Cocozza • James Michael • Janet Devlin • Johnny Robinson • Jonjo Kerr • Kitty Brucknell • Little Mix • Marcus Collins • Misha B • Nu Vibe • Sami Brookes • Sophie Habibis • The Risk • 2 Shoes | |||
| The X Factor UK Winners | |||
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