Little Mix reveal all about The X Factor, the curse of the girl band and DNA | The Power of Little Mix Podcast

11 October 2021, 08:35

The Power Of Little Mix Podcast

By Sam Prance

Jade Thirlwall, Leigh-Anne Pinnock and Perrie Edwards open up about The X Factor, DNA and so much more.

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

In 'The Curse Of The Girl Band’, Jade Thirlwall, Leigh-Anne Pinnock and Perrie Edwards open up about the first two years of their career. The girl group discuss how they overcame The X Factor's infamous 'girl band curse', and how they proved that their wings really were made to fly with their record-breaking debut album.

We also find out about the origins of the band when host Sam Prance (that's me) chats with Beth Honan, Little Mix’s creative director on The X Factor, and Iain James, the co-writer behind some of the girls' biggest hits. From their formation in 2011 to the end of the DNA era, this is how the legend of Little Mix began.

READ MORE: 10 iconic Little Mix songs that should have been singles

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 1 now.

Sam Prance: So to start, we're gonna take it right back to 2011. I want to take you to the moment that Kelly and Tulisa put you together. What actually happened right after the cameras were cut and you'd been told we want you to be a girl group?

Leigh-Anne Pinnock: Well, we got to know each other. We went off to a pub that Perrie used to own and got to know each other and realise that we were gonna be the next big thing. But we just sang together and it was magic. And it was just meant to be. Like, we knew it was meant to be.

Sam Prance: Was there a first song you sang together and harmonised and you were just like, ‘Wow, this is magic!’?

Jade Thirlwall: Yeah, I think, was it 'Cry Me a River'?

Perrie Edwards: Yeah, it would have been that. Yeah. Yeah.

Leigh-Anne Pinnock: Or was it Ed Sheeran? ‘You Need Me'?

Jade Thirlwall: Well, maybe…

Leigh-Anne Pinnock: No, it was 'Cry Me a River'.

Perrie Edwards: I think it was 'Cry Me a River' or the, what's his name, 'And now you say you're lonely, you cried the whole night through'? Like the arrangement we did. The thing is we hung out for so long, getting to know each other, becoming best friends, sisters, like just having a laugh. And then we were like, 'We haven't actually sang anything yet, should we rehearse?' And then that's when we sang together and we were like. I remember Jade's face. And our mams were literally like, 'Oh my God'! Like, they couldn't believe it. They were so shocked. Weren't they? I think we were shocked as well.

Sam Prance: And you went straight from that, and got through straight to the live shows. But there was sort of this narrative when you started that you were the underdogs. You were the bookies’ favourite to go out in the first week, there was the girl group curse, you had to change your name halfway through... How was the stress of that?

Jade Thirlwall: Oh, it was like the weight of the world was on our shoulders?

Perrie Edwards: Literally!

Jade Thirlwall: No, do you know what, I think we've really thrived well under this sort of underdog mentality. You know, we've always had a point to prove whether it's from right at the beginning as a girl band like you say. As the weeks went on, we just kept having to prove why we deserved to be there and I think that mentality has never sort of left us our whole career. And I feel like that's probably why we're still going strong. But yeah, it was a lot man, especially back then. We were like 18/19, thrown into the limelight, thrown onto a show like that. It's so intense. I feel kind of grateful that we were so young and naive to it all because we were just literally like, just bouncing off the walls, weren't we? We didn't really understand fully what was going on until we were just in it…. which was probably for the best to be honest, to not have to overthink it all.

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