Little Mix’s Jade Thirlwall says split with Simon Cowell ‘f***ed us over’
LITTLE Mix have taken on the girl power mantle from the Spice Girls.
But the group claim they were stopped from pushing the message further under their old label and former boss Simon Cowell.
During the making of their LM5 album in 2018, the girl band had to switch labels to RCA after a fallout with The X Factor judge’s Syco. And Jade Thirlwall says this “f***ed us over”.
Asked why fans didn’t see much female empowerment in their music videos, Jade added: “We did a little bit but we had a switch of labels during the LM5 process and that really f***ed us over. It was harder to put all our creativity out there in the way we would have liked.
“The LM5 album was very heavily on women’s rights and our experiences in the industry.”
The Sun revealed in 2018 that Jade and bandmates Leigh-Anne Pinnock, Jesy Nelson and Perrie Edwards confronted Simon in a strongly worded email over writing credits.
A bigger row then erupted between the group’s management company Modest and Simon, who decided to cut ties with them. The band, who won The X Factor in 2011, now insist they are in a good place.
Jade continued to POPline Brazil: “We’re sort of cruising at the moment. That period in our careers was quite troublesome.
“I feel like now we’re in a good place — we’re with RCA and we’re working on a new record, which is really exciting.
“We’ve learnt to really stick to our guns and do what we believe in.”
Her band-mate Leigh-Anne added: “We’re definitely back on track with everything.
“We’ve got a new album and a new single coming.
“It’s so exciting. We’ve actually done quite a lot of the album already. It’s one of our favourites.”
Even a rude partygoer couldn’t ruin Jade’s mood at the weekend.
After a woman in a bar criticised her abstract-print suit, saying it was “horrible”, the grinning Geordie filmed herself on Instagram putting up her middle fingers.
Girl power indeed.
Deadly funny
I’VE heard of people splitting their sides laughing but rup-turing an appendix is new to me.
That’s what happened to one punter at a Rob Beckett gig at London’s Eventim Apollo.
The stand-up got a message from fan Jess Whybrow saying her boyfriend had had to go to A&E after the performance.
She told him: “Your show was so funny my boyfriend ruptured his appendix. We were laughing our heads off while he was intermittently wincing.
“Took him straight off to A&E when we left.
“Leaving hospital today almost five days later, but he’s still adamant it was worth staying till the end.”
Rob said: “Consider yourself warned. Get well soon mate.”
Having heard him narrate on Celebs Go Dating I can sympathise – Rob is hilarious.
Dua on fellas
SHE’S one of the biggest artists in the world, but Dua Lipa reckons she’d be even more successful if she was a man.
The Physical singer says women aren’t taken as seriously as blokes in the music industry.
And she insists she has to work harder than her male equivalents.
Dua said: “I think if I was a man people would interpret everything differently.
“Being a female artist, every little word you say or every little thing you do gets linked into your personal life.
“Everything gets dissected, whereas if you are a male artist with a guitar or a piano, it’s like, ‘Yeah, well done. You have written everything’. It is instantly genuine, whereas, as women, we have to work a little bit harder to be taken seriously.
“That is a fact, but I don’t think we are afraid of working hard as it is a thing we have had to do our whole lives.”
You don’t have to look far to see where she got her work ethic and determination from.
For that she paid tribute to her parents, who fled war-torn Kosovo in 1992.
Dua told Swedish chat show Skavlan: “My parents have been through a lot and their love has survived.
“They worked hard to give me and my siblings the best possible education. They are such great role models.”
No wonder she’s always top of her game.
bizbit
THE JLS lads want their children to be in the spotlight during their reunion tour, which starts in November.
Marvin Humes said: “We’d all love to have our kids up on stage with us. It’d be a lovely moment.”
Rita, Ora Kylie?
RITA Ora sticks in the mind with an outfit that is very similar to a classic Kylie Minogue look.
She wore this white hooded gown like Kylie’s had in her video for Can’t Get You Out Of My Head.
Rita posted the pic on Instagram to promote new track How To Be Lonely, which she performed on BBC1’s Sport Relief on Friday night.
She explained how she discovered the song – written by Lewis Capaldi – while going through heartache.
The Masked Singer judge said: “I heard it midway through breaking up. I don’t know why we always put this thing on ourselves of, ‘We can’t be by ourselves and it’s so hard to be alone’.”
Don’t worry, Rita. It looks like you’re doing just fine on your own.
bizbit
SEAN Paul says Break It Off, his 2006 track with Rihanna, was his favourite collab because she embraced his Jamaican culture.
He said: “She ate the food we ate. She went to the Bob Marley Museum.”
Baby on the way
MY congratulations to Spencer Matthews and Vogue Williams, who are expecting their second child, a girl.
They had been trying to conceive since last summer but struggled, as Vogue suffers from polycystic ovary syndrome, which makes it harder to get pregnant.
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The model, who is due to give birth in the summer, said: “We’re delighted. It’s so exciting but kind of scary.
“I feel lucky to be having another baby. It isn’t easy for everyone, and it was certainly a different path for us this time, so it’s really nice to be talking about it now.”
The couple met on TV show The Jump in 2017 and married in 2018, a few months before their first child, Theodore, was born.
bizmeter
- DONALD Glover surprised fans with an album release over the weekend, dropping a live stream on donaldgloverpresents.com. The new record – his first since 2016 – contains 12 songs and includes a collaboration with Ariana Grande.
- THE Snuts are set for a debut Top Ten place in the UK Album Chart with their new Mixtape EP. The rocking Scottish four-piece will likely join their pal Lewis Capladi, whose Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish Extent is still sure to be near the top.
- YUNGBLUD will perform a show in LA today that will be live streamed on his YouTube channel. S***’s Weird Keep Calm And Carry On will feature the singer and his live band plus fan Q&As. He said: “We need each other more than ever right now.”
- DRAKE has revealed he is working on new music. He said: “I just left the studio. I’m working on a new album.” Asked in an Instagram Live stream when it will be out, the rapper replied: “I don’t know, when it’s done. We’ll see. Hopefully soon, right?”
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