Little Mix

Little Mix for The Times

**Little Mix** is a British four-piece girl group consisting of Leigh-Anne Pinnock, Jade Thirlwall, Jesy Nelson and Perrie Edwards, they competed on the eighth season of *The X Factor UK* in 2011 and won.

Since winning *The X Factor UK*, Little Mix have gone on to release 3 UK top 5 studio albums, one of which are 3x platinum certified and two of which being gold

## History

### **2011: Formation and The X Factor**

Perrie Edwards, Jesy Nelson, Leigh-Anne Pinnock and Jade Thirlwall successfully auditioned as soloists for the eighth series of The X Factor in 2011, but failed to make it past bootcamp's first challenge. However, the judges decided to give them another chance to be part of the Groups category, which happened August 19, 2011. They were then put into separate ensembles by the judges during the group's bootcamp stage, with Perrie and Jesy in four-member group known as "Faux Pas" and Jade and Leigh-Anne in three-member group "Orion". Both groups failed to make it through to the judges' houses. A later decision saw two members from each group being called back to form the four-piece group Rhythmix, this sending them through to the judges' houses.

Their first name together as a band was Rhythmix and with that name their first cover song was "Big Girls Don't Cry" in front of Jessie J and Tulisa in the judge's house, finally managing to get through. They reached the live shows and were mentored by Tulisa Contostavlos. On October 26, 2011, Rhythmix announced that they would change their name following a dispute with a Brighton-based children's music charity of the same name, after the programme tried to trademark "Rhythmix". It was reported that the group decided to make the change, despite no legal reason to do so, to avoid any difficulties for the charity. On 28 October 2011, it was announced that the group's new name would be "Little Mix".  On December 11, 2011, Little Mix were announced as the winners, making them the first group ever to win the show. They were signed into Nostalgia Records to make their albums. Little Mix doesn't have a leader. Once during the X Factor they've been told to make Perrie the leader of the band but Perrie said "We can all sing and there isn't a lead singer at all."

### **2012-2013: DNA and international breakthrough**

On April 1, 2012, a snippet of Little Mix's debut single "Wings" previewed on chat show Alan Carr: Chatty Man before its release date on the 30th of April.

Little Mix performed their debut single "Wings" for the first time at the Villa Mix Beto Carrero World concert on July 1, 2012. The single debuted at #1 on the UK Singles Chart.

Their debut album, DNA, was released in July 2012. Tiesto produced every song except for "Turn Your Face" that was produced by Pharrell Williams The album reached #5 in the UK. Their second single off the album, "How Ya Doin'?" featuring Big Sean was released on September 10, 2012, which reached #1 in the UK charts as well as in Scotland and #24 in the US.

### **2013-2015: Salute**

In August 2012. The group began work writing and recording the album in August 2012 and concluded in January 2013. On January 27, 2013, Little Mix uploaded a video to their official YouTube page, announcing that their second album would be called Salute and would be available for pre-order the following day. The album was released on February 4, 2013. The album was largely co-written by Little Mix, who stated that they were more involved in the development of this album than with their debut.

On March 4, 2013, "Move" was premiered on BBC Radio 1. For the single, "Move" was released on March 4, 2013. The song peaked at #1 in the UK, and #47 in the US. The single also charted in Canada, Latin America, Europe & Oceania. Since then, "Move" has been certified gold in Oceania and platinum in the UK. Salute was picked as the original lead single however failed to chart in the US and didn't go 1 in the UK, they then labeled it as a "Promo Single"

### **2015-2016: Get Weird**

At the 2015 Teen Choice Awards , the group confirmed that their album was completed, describing it as having a "whole new sound" and projecting the release for sometime in 2015. In March 2015, Little Mix released a song called "Black Magic" which failed to reach the number 1 spot in the UK peaking at 2.

On July 15, 2015, following a leak of the album's cover art, the group officially announced on Twitter that their third studio album would be titled Get Weird, and would be available for pre-order the following day, with a global release date set for November 9, 2015.

On June 15, 2015, the group released "Hair" as the second single from the album, the song peaked at #1 on the UK charts being their 4th UK number 1, first this era . On August 12, 2015, Little Mix announced that their third single off Get Weird would be "Love Me Like You". The song peaked at #1 on the UK charts being their 5th number 1 and second this era, it also reached 98 on the Billboard Hot 100. On October 5th 2015, the group released "Secret Love Song" featuring the r&b singer Usher.

On March 13, 2016 Little Mix embarked on The Get Weird Tour to promote the album, the arena tour consist of 60 dates across the UK. On April 11, 2016, the group announced that "OMG" would have a music video and serve as the fourth single from Get Weird, however the music video got cancelled since they were too busy working on their 4th studio album.

### **2016-2017: Glory Days**

On July 21, 2016 the girls revealed the lead single "Shout Out to My Ex" from their fourth album, released on August 1, 2016 which became their seventh #1 in the UK. On August 14, 2016 the girls announced their fourth album Glory Days which was released on November 21, 2016. The album debuted at #1 in the UK and 14 in the US with 2k pure pure sales. Little Mix announced on September 20, 2016 that "Touch" would be released as the second single from the album. It was released on September 26, 2016, and reached #1 in the UK. Power featuring Akon was the third single from the album, coming November 7 as a digital-only single, it ended up charting at 67 on the Billboard Hot 100 being the first from this era to chart, the song also became their 9th UK number 1 single. No More Sad Songs featuring Chris Brown was chosen as the fourth & final single and was released on December 26, 2016, reaching #1 in the UK, becoming their tenth number 1.

### Artistry

Little Mix cites the Spice Girls, Beyoncé, Michael Jackson, Destiny’s Child, En Vogue, TLC, Nicki Minaj, Christina Aguilera and Rihanna as their musical influences.

## Discography

* DNA (2012)
* Salute (2013)
* Get Weird (2015)
* Glory Days (2016)

## Tours

### **Headlining**

* The DNA Concert (2012)
* The Salute Tour (2013)
* The Get Weird Tour (2016)
* The Glory Days Tour (2017)

### **Promotional**

* The X Factor Live Tour (2011)
* The Black Magic Radio Tour (2015)
* The Love Me Like You Radio Tour (2015)

### **Supporting**

* The Neon Lights Tour (2014)
* The Dangerous Woman Tour (2017)

* The 1989 World Tour (2015)