Little Mix reveal all about Shout Out to My Ex, Glory Days and the BRITs | The Power of Little Mix Podcast

25 October 2021, 11:06

The Power Of Little Mix Podcast

By Sam Prance

Jade Thirlwall, Leigh-Anne Pinnock and Perrie Edwards open up about Shout Out to My Ex, Glory Days and so much more.

The third episode of The Power of Little Mix is out now, a podcast created to celebrate a decade of making girl group history.

In 'The Real-Life Glory Days', Jade Thirlwall, Leigh-Anne Pinnock and Perrie Edwards open up about how the Glory Days era became their real-life glory days. They discuss the impact of songs like 'Touch', what the BRITs mean to them and the story behind 'Secret Love Song' becoming an LGBTQ+ anthem.

We also find out about the making of 'Shout Out to My Ex' and what goes into creating a Little Mix look, when host Sam Prance (that's me again) chats to chart-topping songwriter Kamille and Little Mix’s stylists Zack & Jamie. From performing at the BRITs for the first time in 2016 to winning a BRIT for the first time in 2017, this is how Little Mix entered the first imperial phase of their career.

Check out a sneak peek of the episode below and make sure to download and subscribe on Global Player to listen in full.

Click the image below to listen to Episode 3 now.

Sam Prance: Get Weird was iconic 'cause it was your first era where you sort of had every single was a huge hit. So you went straight from 'Love Me Like You' into 'Secret Love Song'. And that obviously took on a life of its own. And particularly with your LGBTQ+ audience, like we resonated with it so much. How aware were you of your queer fans before that song came out? And how did your relationship change with them?

Jade Thirlwall: Oh, well, I don't think we realised as we were recording it because, actually the song was about a love affair from the songwriter's perspective. But I think we sort of gauged that it could be a great sort of LGBT song 'cause I think the album had come out by that point, hadn't it? So we started to gauge that, like, especially our LGBTQ+ fans were really picking up on the song and sort of, you know, taking it as their own anthem. So for the original 'Secret Love Song' video, we actually did have a narrative, didn't we? There was various storylines and included in that were like a gay storyline, a lesbian storyline, there was... It was very that and I can't even remember why it got cut now? Can you remember that?

Perrie Edwards: I think. I can't remember but I remember obviously 'Secret Love Song, Pt. II', is when we were like, 'This could be an anthem for forbidden love, and all this kind of thing.' But then I remember Jason Derulo was going through something personal at the time and when he was there. Oh he heard the song, loved it. And he was like, 'I'd love to feature on it. I've got something that I could write.' And we were like, sure. And then obviously when Jason jumped on it, it had become like a ballad between like, man and woman, like, what he was going through, what we were going through. And that's when it kind of all changed. So I think that version and the part two version are completely different, like concepts, don't you think?

Leigh-Anne Pinnock: Definitely!

Jade Thirlwall: But I like that the Jason one's its own version and then the part two is, you know, it belongs to that community now. It is an anthem for the LGBTQ+ community and when we perform it on stage, on tour, I literally get shivers every single night. ‘Cause I always look at the audience and see someone in the audience who I can tell it's really affecting them. And yeah, it's took on a life of its own really...

Perrie Edwards: Yeah, and we get proposals to it. We get, it's like crazy. And, like, it's played at weddings. Like it's honestly, that song has just done ...so incredible.It's just so. It's beautiful.

Jade Thirlwall: I like that the community took that for themselves as opposed to us being like, 'We've written an LGBT song! Here it is, you're gonna love it!' Do you know what I mean? Like I like that it happened really organically and it didn't really come from us. It came from the community itself, who were like 'Actually, we resonate with this and we're gonna have this as our song'. So I think that made it even more special and obviously off the back of that we then became more aware and became better allies I suppose off the back of it.

Sam Prance: Well, also Jade the fact that every time you perform it live, you specifically mention the LGBTQ+ community. It's so important 'cause I remember taking my nine-year-old sister to the Glory Days tour and she literally asked, after you said that, she was like 'Sam, what does LGBTQ+ mean?' And I just thought all the kids in that audience asking their families the same question.

Perrie Edwards: Ah, that's so true!

Sam Prance: Like, it is, it's priceless what you girls do.

Jade Thirlwall: Incredibly important.

Leigh-Anne Pinnock: And let's not forget the um, the backflip that Jason Derulo did on the wall in the video?

Perrie Edwards: Is it a backflip? It's more like a run up, spin isn't it?

Jade Thirlwall: Ah it's iconic! And then he does this thing with his hands. Oh, we loved that so much. He's so extra in it, but we love it because we're just as extra.

Leigh-Anne Pinnock: Love him!

The Power of Little Mix is available to stream exclusively on Global Player now.