Scrolling through Twitter late one night, I see a five-way squabble happening between Little Mix, Ariana Grande, Ariana Grande's mother, Ellen DeGeneres and Piers Morgan. Little Mix are currently on a high following the release of their fifth album LM5, not just because five albums is quite the milestone for any girl or boy group in the ruthless world of pop, but because this album feels more true to them than anything they've released before.
And with that high comes the ultimate low from people like Morgan taking undercuts at their success and claiming that they’re “using sex to sell records”, eliminating their talent and their personality in one misguided swoop.
And that’s when Grande, her mam and DeGeneres stepped in to defend the British group. As a pop group that sing about empowerment, they don’t just talk the talk (or sing the sing), they walk the walk and that’s why we want them as our VBF.
With the strongest combined vocals in the game and, perhaps, the strongest of any girl group since Destiny's Child, Little Mix are extremely talented. Even though Jesy Nelson, Leigh-Anne Pinnock, Jade Thirlwall and Perrie Edwards's individual auditions on X Factor in 2011 were impressive, they became unshakeable when they were thrown together as a girl group, eventually becoming the first group to win X Factor.
As soon as they released their debut single Wings, it was clear that Little Mix were promoting three things: female empowerment, healthy friendships and body positivity. For a lot of stars, the post-X Factor makeover can leave a lot of artists totally unrecognisable, from lip fillers to boob jobs on the ladies and full-arm tattoo sleeves and chiselled abs on the boys in record time. These makeovers also come airbrushed and Photoshopped, proving that perceived perfection doesn't quite cut it anymore.
In their video for their new single Strip, Nelson, Pinnock, Thirlwall and Edwards do something quite spectacular. There's no question that the four women have toned up and slimmed down since we first met them in 2011 but in this video, they dance around in underwear (that's briefs and sports bras, not Victoria's Secret thongs) we see their bodies as they are with no airbrushing or Photoshopping. We see their flat tummies but we see their cellulite. We see the definition in their arms but we also see some jiggle when they move.
Their bodies are an honest portrayal of what it’s like to be healthy and fit in a very reasonable and realistic way. Of course, they have a team of people on hand to help with their wardrobe, their make-up and so on, but in an age where our pop stars – and mostly female pop stars, I must add – have to be perfect 24/7, showing no sign of reality in their thighs or their bellies, these jiggles are reassuring. Their jiggles might convince a young girl to go easier on herself in the gym or to enjoy her meals a little bit more. That’s what Little Mix are all about; loving who you are for you and not putting yourself out there to be critiqued by old men.
A group is a risky thing to be in the pop sphere. When in-feuding or escalating egos can often cut the lifespan of a group down by a few years, Little Mix have managed to stick together, growing stronger with each album. Taking an edgier route with their music on LM5, after finally breaking free from Simon Cowell's label Syco, the talented Little Mix women have used their strong vocals to put out an even stronger message.
