Jade Thirlwall rose to fame with Little Mix as the group stormed the X Factor in 2011 but after nine years of hits, the band went their separate ways in 2022
Little Mix star Jade Thirlwall admits she “struggled the most” as she addressed a worry she had for the band. The group formed on the X Factor in 2011 and went on to become one of the top sellings bands of all time.
But in 2022 they announced they would be splitting up in order to “recharge” and pursue their own solo projects. Jade admits that being part of the music industry is “cut-throat” and would regularly worry about being dropped by the record label.
Speaking to Harper’s Bazaar, she explained: “I look back at the times when we were huge, before Get Weird came out, and we had a big sleepover, all crying, ‘If this isn’t a Top 10 song, we’ll get dropped’. It’s wild to think about now because we were so big at the time.”
The album reached number two in the Official UK Charts but its lead single, Black Magic, scored the coveted number one spot. The band enjoyed nine years of chart success before Jesy Nelson announced she was leaving in 2020.
Jesy cited her mental health as part of the reason for leaving the band, something she openly discussed in her documentary Odd One Out. Jade, along with bandmates Perrie Edwards and Leigh-Anne Pinnock continued to perform for two years after Jesy’s departure.
Jade, 32, admits she initially found it difficult to adapt to life after Little Mix. It took her two years, therapy, and the guidance of her boyfriend, Rizzle Kicks star Jordan Stephens, to release new music.
She was the last member of the girl group to kickstart her solo career. “I struggled the most to adapt to life after the group,” she explains. “The other girls had better distractions: families, kids. They went into a new chapter willingly.”
Jade says she “didn’t know what to do with myself” and admits that Little Mix had been all she’d known since she was 18. She released her first solo single, Angel of My Dreams in 2024, peaking at number seven in the charts.
Her self-written debut album, That’s Showbiz Baby, was the fastest-selling debut album so far this year. It has received critical acclaim and reached number three in the charts in its first week.
It comes after Jade scooped up Best Pop Act at the Brit Awards following the release of Angel of My Dreams. Jade says her solo career gave her a chance to take creative control of her music.
She wants to show people she’s “not just a pop princess” but “an artist with a vision”. And while it may have taken her three years after the split to release her first album, Jade concedes she doesn’t “want to wait as long” for the next release.
It means she is already working on new material before touring the album across the US and Europe next year. Meanwhile her former bandmate Perrie is currently featuring on BBC Two’s Girlbands Forever.
The series includes in depth interviews with members of All Saints, Atomic Kitten, Eternal, Little Mix, Mis-Teeq and Sugababes.
Source: Mirror
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