The Untold Truth About What Little Mix Went Through With Their Label, Exposing Simon Cowell, and Tea About Solo Projects
Picture by Rachell Smith for You Magazine, November 2018.
Little Mix is a British girl band that was formed on X-Factor (XF) in 2011, which is also the same season in which they won. Instantly, they became a huge success and solidified their status as they formed & broke girl-group records. Today, they hold 5 number 1 singles in the UK and have released six albums.
Streets are saying that the Mixer fanbase has been distraught ever since it was announced that Jesy Nelson has left Little Mix (LM) on December 15, 2020. It has been highly requested for us to talk about LM, especially their label struggles & what they exposed, so that’s what we’ll be discussing today. I’ll also be talking about any future solo projects.
Before I start, I wanna say thank you to our readers for being patient with this post. It didn’t go up on the scheduled day because I wasn’t feeling well and therefore wasn’t able to finalize in time.
Problems With Their Label & Jesy’s Departure
When LM won the XF in 2011, they signed with Simon Cowell’s label, Syco Music. In January 2013, they signed with Columbia Records which is a North American label. Basically, Columbia Records would be responsible for dealing with them in North America.
In November 2018, it was announced that LM split with Syco. Syco then confirmed that they are splitting with Modest! Management (MM) which is a management company that is home to Little Mix, One Direction, 5 Seconds of Summer, and so on. Samantha Cox is a brand manager that works at MM who is also LM’s manager.
Jesy Nelson with Samantha Cox
Following their split with Syco, they signed with RCA UK which will serve as their new record label.
After Jesy’s announcement stating that she’s leaving LM, she quickly unfollowed Samantha on Instagram. She also unfollowed the IG accounts for Little Mix: The Search & LMX Beauty. Fans also noticed that she unfollowed Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain who is Perrie Edward’s long-time boyfriend.
Jesy originally followed him in 2017.
Fans took that as Jesy parting with Little Mix professionally, but also personally. Some even said that she unfollowed Leigh-Anne Pinnock’s sister, but I didn’t see screenshots of her following her, to begin with (Mixers can elaborate for us in the comment section).
That’s the background information of their label, management, and Jesy’s departure in a nutshell.
Why they departed with Simon Cowell
not them forcing smiles :/
LM and Simon didn’t really get along throughout the years. He had a vision for them and they didn’t want to execute it. They also didn’t interact that much since they went through the label and the label’s executives. Since the start, the girls have been heavily involved with the creation of their music and their concepts. Since they actually came up with a lot of cool concepts, the label liked it and moved forward with it. However, there were a lot of times where they clashed.
It’s reported that the final straw that LM had with Simon & Syco was over the writing credits of ‘Woman Like Me.’
The song was originally written by Jess Glynne, Ed Sheeran, and Steve Mac. The Sun reports that the girls had added additional lyrics, but didn’t get a writing credit alongside the rest of the writers. They were upset because of their lack of recognition and they didn’t want any publishing money.
It’s said that Simon got them the writing credit, but I can’t find them on any official writing credit repertory.
Simon spoke to The Sun about this situation and the entitlement of his words were literally bouncing off the walls. He said:
“The only reason I got annoyed was that it’s easy to paint this picture of Syco as this dark, awful place where all we’re trying to do is rip artists off and make them unhappy.
“I suppose why I am glad I’m talking to you guys today — at least I can tell you what really happened.”
“It was just embarrassing but, funnily enough, I was more annoyed, again, not about me, but about the fact people who had worked so hard in my company were being misrepresented. Why do artists think they’re more important than staff members? They’re not. They’re the same.
“The irony was the record they were arguing about, which is Woman Like Me, they didn’t want to record. This was one of those ironic times that we were having a hit and nobody was happy.”
“It wasn’t down to money. Basically, they said we’d done a terrible job. I had agreed not to talk about this publicly because I thought it was a private matter. I said, ‘We can’t work with the management, it’s as simple as that’.”
Their split with Simon & his label was said to be on positive terms, but we all know that isn’t true.
His statement is as manipulative as all the stories that I’ve heard about Simon. He turned this whole thing into LM thinking they’re better than the people that work at the company when the truth is, they were mistreated but he didn’t wanna hear their mouths. He wanted them to be grateful that he even signed them. His ego can literally reach Neptune.
After they split with Simon, it was reported that they made £10million the year after (2019) which is £2million more than what they made previously.
In general, Simon Cowell isn’t a nice person. He’s your average celebrity douche who thinks that he can get whatever woman he wants because he’s rich and famous. To get far in a life that Simon is controlling, you probably have to sleep with him.
In short, he looks at women like nothing else than sex toys who are there to please HIM. And if they want anything in life, it’s through batting their eyes and doing what he says.
Alicia Douvall, one of Simon’s ex-girlfriends, said that one night, they had sex 11 times. She says that after every time they had sex, he would judge her and give pointers on how she could improve. However, he didn’t think that he had anything he should improve on.
She claims that their relationship ended after he was tired of her like an “old toy.”
In his book, Simon wrote about another woman, Lisa Forward, and said that he dumped her because she was “rubbish in bed.”
Sharon Osbourne has worked with Simon before and she came out to say that he doesn’t like overweight people and he can’t see people as individuals.
"Simon doesn't have an ability to see individuals. He doesn’t like people who are overweight. Seriously! That’s why he turned down Jennifer Hudson, that’s why he wouldn’t champion her on the show (American Idol). But it’s the truth. He’s very dated."
She also described him as “superficial” and that he removed her from X-Factor 2017 because she is “too old.”
I’m no Sharon Osbourne fan because she also isn’t the nicest of people, but everything she said about Simon is true to his core.
Now, let’s look at Little Mix. Jade, Perrie, Jesy, and Leigh-Anne—they are the embodiment of women empowerment to their core. What does this tell us? They never got along with Simon because he probably saw them as objects that he could dress up in skimpy outfits and that’s not who they were.
LM does what LM wants to do.
Not what Simon says.
This brings me to their song Not A Pop Song which is literally about Simon.
They sing:
They look for picture perfect
Don't look deeper than the surface
Bubblegum always pops and
Stars they fade out, life never stopsI don't do what Simon says
Get the message 'cause it's read
That's just life it never plays fair
Said to follow any dream
Be a puppet on a string
Works for you but that isn't me…
A hamster on the wheel
That's how it's feels tryin' to be real
These unrealistic expectations, said we'll make it if we fake it
That is literally their relationship with Simon & his label to a tee.
For the most part, Simon got along with Fifth Harmony because they were willing to do whatever he wanted them to do. “Here’s a stupid song with some middle school lyrics and hey! wear this skimpy outfit and dance like that.”
5H was willing to play the game to get them where they got. Were they miserable? Of course, but they played the “picture perfect” "puppet on a string” role. In the end, it rewarded them in some aspects. Did they have longevity? No, but they were offered opportunities.
Jade told You Magazine:
‘I remember walking into an early label meeting and saying, “This is who we want to be, this is the campaign we want, this is the imagery we want,”’ says Jade. ‘We knew our brand from the get go and we very much steered that ship.’
LM also hit it big as soon as they debuted so it worked in their favor at the time. It goes back to what I told you about them bringing ideas that the label liked. Things started going south when they didn’t approve of their ideas and LM wanted more creative control (also because they believe that their label mistreated them big time).
The same thing happened with 5H. Didn’t Lauren Jauregui practically beg to have one of her favorite songs included on their last album?
Switching labels days before they released LM5 really messed things up for them.
Jade said:
We had a bit of a switch of labels... and that really f**ked us over. It was hard to put all our creativity out there exactly how we would have liked to have done. The LM5 album was very heavily on women's rights, what it feels like to be a woman [and] our experiences in the industry."
This brings us to the next part…
Flirt to get your song played on the radio!
That is what Jade exposed in LM’s ASOS Magazine shoot & interview in November 2018.
Picture by James Robjant, Styled by Natalie Michaelides for ASOS Magazine.
Excerpt from their interview:
Jade recalls going to a radio event in America, a few years back, full of VIPs. ‘Someone from our US record label said, “Go and flirt with all those important men.” I was like, “Why have I got to go in and flirt to get my song on the radio?”’
…
‘In the beginning, we were told we shouldn’t be involved in our music videos,’ remembers Jesy. ‘We were told by one massive producer in the US that we shouldn’t be writing, we should just be given songs,’ splutters Jade. More sighs. ‘We realised we – as women – have to work 10 times as hard, which is really annoying cos we do write songs,’ Jesy points out.
With the rise of the #MeToo movement and industry executives scared of being exposed, Hollywood is becoming about 5% more self-aware. The fact that we’re able to look at how Britney Spears was mistreated in the media and criticize how things were done, shows that as a whole, people are moving in the right direction.
HOWEVER, even then, the whole “flirt to get your song played on radio” is something that happens daily in the industry and it probably won’t go away anytime soon.
The thing is, men dominate the industry and by men, I don’t mean your average famous singers. I’m talking about powerful VIPs, industry executives, CEOs, and so on. When someone else holds the power, you either do what they say or don’t.
And by the looks of it, Little Mix didn’t. I actually have a story about their interactions in America, but let me finish up this section first.
People like Camila Cabello knew exactly what to say and what to do to break away from the girl group and have a hit song. Camila was at every after party kissing up the producers, executives, and powerful people who could help her. Am I shaming Camila for doing this? No, actually. That’s what you have to do.
LM wasn’t about to do that. The thing about them is that they’re there for a good time, not a waste of time. They view flirting with men to get something such as your song on the radio as something that is beneath them. It truly is, but the sad part is that’s how the industry works. I applaud them for not giving in to it, but tell me, did they have a hit song on American radio? No. And that’s the “punishment” for not playing the game.
Some stars play the game, others don’t.
Speaking of playing the game, I spoke to someone who works in the mainstream radio industry and they’ve actually met Little Mix.
I reached out to him when I knew I was going to write this post because I wanted his input on the girls.
Here’s what he said
“Overall, they were very sweet girls and they knew what they wanted. They were delightful to be around. The only thing I can say is that they give off a “stand-offish” vibe. To some people, that read as ‘divas,’ but it wasn’t because they were rude or anything. It was more in the sense that they were so confident, they intimidated people in the room.
I can tell that every minute they were there, the real factor was on. Not once did I feel like they wanted to be “extra nice” if that makes sense. I’ve worked with a lot of celebrities and usually, they come off very nice because they put the extra effort to charm. Little Mix just let their talent speak for themselves so they didn’t feel the need to lightly charm. You know, some people can take that in the wrong way even though they did nothing wrong.”
Knowing that ^ information made so much more sense to me. My source also tells me that the girls have a different way of joking and that barrier between British humor and American humor probably gave off that vibe as well.
For their You Magazine interview, they said:
‘Jesy’s the badass,’ Perrie laughs. ‘Whenever I’m scared, I’ll stand behind her. She’s the one who puts her foot down in a boardroom full of men and says, “It’s going to be this way.” But we pick our battles. We don’t just argue about every decision – it’s when we feel we have to.’
‘Nobody could say that we are difficult, and if they do, they’re lying,’ says Leigh-Anne adamantly. Adds Jesy: ‘We know what we want, and we know what kids want.’
Intimidating is the best word to describe them and I say that as a compliment. Also, it’s not their fault if weak-minded men are intimated by a woman knowing exactly what she wants.
Being Overworked
Picture by Rachell Smith for You Magazine, November 2018.
As much as we like to say we don’t care when the rich and famous complain, at the end of the day, they are humans. Also, artists require an insane amount of strength to put on the shows that they do. When it comes to performing and touring, artists often lose their minds because they are overworked and their limits are pushed like never before. We’ve spoken about that a lot on this blog & our channel.
In Little Mix’s books, Jesy reveals exactly that.
Before performing on America’s Got Talent in 2015, Jesy said that:
“On the day, my shoulder went and I couldn't move. In the end I had something like 50 injections and my back was smothered in bruises.”
“Before the show, when I was getting my hair and make-up done, people were feeding me coffee to wake me up.”
"I was so out of it I can't remember anything much about the performance, just that on stage I couldn't get my balance. It was awful, the worst thing I've had to do.”
"In a normal job you can take a day off and no one has a go at you, whereas in this job if you miss a performance, everyone's writing articles, commenting on social media and throwing abuse."
The pain got so bad I was in bed screaming. What's weird in this job is that people don't seem to believe we get ill like everyone else does - or that the people close to us get ill and we need to be with them."
She also said that she was given antibiotics for a tooth issue and they were so powerful, they made her vomit. She was also very stressed about her mom’s heart condition and that resulted in her infected ear starting to bleed.
The rest of the girls have also been open about issues that have affected them a lot. Perrie talks about how anxiety impacted her. Jade opened up about her eating disorder. And Leigh-Anne spoke about how racism affected her.
Jesy’s Departure
Jesy has been very open with her struggles with the media and the toll that bullying took on her. She had a documentary that pinpoints her journey with mental health and all the struggles that she has faced in the industry.
One thing I’ve learned when it comes to covering British celebrities is that the British media can be VILE. I’ve seen it with Little Mix and I’ve seen it with Meghan Markle & Prince Harry. A lot of unfiltered opinions run rampant in their articles in which people read for the story—not the harassment.
At first, it was announced that “Jesy is having extended time off from Little Mix for private medical reasons” in November 2018. She missed a lot of crucial moments for the girls such as hosting the EMAs.
Their rep said “Jesy is unwell and will not be appearing on tonight’s final of Little Mix The Search. She will also not be hosting or performing at tomorrow’s MTV EMAs.”
On December 14, Jesy said, “The truth is recently being in the band has really taken a toll on my mental health. I find the constant pressure of being in a girl group and living up to expectations very hard…so after much consideration and with a heavy heart, I’m announcing I’m leaving Little Mix.”
I didn’t find any information to lead me to believe that Jesy left for other reasons. Jesy was contractually obligated to fulfill a lot of things so it’s hard to believe that she left because she wanted to. She was dealing with private medical reasons. She has been open about depression and suicide in the past and one of my sources believes that there was a health scare that occurred to push her to take the leave in the first place.
The thing is, LM wasn’t your average girl band. They genuinely loved and cared about each other. Anyone who met and worked with them can tell you that. Did Jesy’s departure leave a sour note with the rest of the girls? Of course. They didn’t want her to leave. They understand she did what is best for her, but it was one of those situations where you can’t help, but be upset, while accepting it at the same.
The good thing about them is that her departure wasn’t something that was sudden for them. It’s not like they found out via her representatives like in the case of Camila & 5H. It was something that was talked about well before the official announcement.
I say this because the reporters already had the news, but they were waiting on official confirmation. The fact that Jesy was taking a break like 2 weeks before, primed everyone for the inevitable announcement.
Solo Ventures
Recently, Jesy posted that she’s in the studio and suddenly everyone went crazy.
Fans of course felt betrayed because it’s like how dare you leave a girl group to make more music?
Well to be honest, Jesy never said that she wasn’t going to be making more music. She just said that being in the girl group affected her.
The truth is, solo projects have been in discussion with Little Mix since 2018.
A source told me that ever since they left Syco in 2018, they were able to look at their future in a bigger manner. They were also advised that as businesswomen, you can’t have one thing be who you are for the rest of your life. And trust me, those girls are businesswomen. They have the business mindset hence their perfumes, their beauty line, their talent show, and so on.
Leaving Syco gave them the freedom to look at their future away from the band as well as granting them more creative freedom.
The only reason LM has gone on this long is because they wanted to go on this long. Again, they genuinely got a long very well and are very close.
Jesy still wants to make more music. From what I was told, she definitely wants to release some solo projects, but she’s also looking heavily into being part of what creates a song. The concept, the lyrics, the production, and so on.
The same thing goes for Leigh-Anne, Jade, and Perrie.
What I also heard is that LM will embark on solo projects in the future, but will still keep the band intact. It’s going to be different than 5H and 1D because when they announced their “hiatus” they knew it was a breakup.
This is all set to change in the future depending on how well LM performs as a trio and what they eventually want to do, but so far, that’s the information I have for you now.
I really hope you guys enjoyed this post and I was able to clarify the public information as well as add inside details. This was the first official LM post on this blog so I’m definitely interested in continuing to talk about them. I wanted to explain more of why their label didn’t push them in North America even though the girls wanted that, but I’ll keep that for next time since this post was already so long.
Thanks to my readers & Mixers for being patient with me for this post. Hope you guys enjoyed it!
Comment down below your thoughts and questions! What do you think is the future of Little Mix? What about Jesy? What did you think of what our source said about them being stand-offish to Americans? You can comment anonymously so take advantage of that. I will be reading and replying ;)