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Jade Thirlwall might have struck a nerve with Simon Cowell, thanks to a standout lyric on her debut solo single “Angel of My Dreams” that appears to make a dig at his now-defunct record label, Syco Music.
The former Little Mix star turned solo singer launched her first solo effort last week to positive reviews and acclaim from fans. She has described the track as her personal “love/hate letter to the music industry”.
On the first verse, she sings: “You only care about money/ Sellin’ my soul to a psycho/ They say I’m so lucky/ Better act like you’re lucky, honey.”
Little Mix, comprising Thirlwall and her former bandmates Perrie Edwards, Leigh-Anne Pinnock and Jesy Nelson, signed to Syco – a division of Syco Entertainment – after winning reality TV contest The X Factor in 2011.
Responding to the lyric, a representative for Cowell’s entertainment company told the Daily Mail in April: “The entire team who worked incredibly hard behind the scenes with Little Mix to help make the group a success would, I’m sure, always continue to wish them solo success.”
Built around a sample of Sandie Shaw’s 1967 classic “Puppet on a String”, Thirlwall’s single reflects the “dark side” that comes with fame.
“It’s not as glam as it seems,” she said in a statement upon the song’s release. “In the beginning of our career you do think you are this puppet, but at the same time it isn’t true – we wrote a lot of our songs, and we were behind a lot of what we put out there.
“I resented that as a statement. So it felt natural to take that and show that it can be true and untrue at the same time.”
Thirlwall, Pinnock and Edwards announced that Little Mix would go on an indefinite hiatus in 2021, playing an emotional final show in 2022.
The decision came one year after Nelson quit the group, amid rumours of a deteriorating relationship with her bandmates. Nelson said her decision was taken in light of the toll being in the band had taken on her mental health.
All four bandmembers have gone on to release solo music. Edwards released her debut, “Forget About Us”, in April this year, while Pinnock shared her first solo track, the garage-influenced “Don’t Say Love”, in 2023.
Nelson, meanwhile, has shared two singles to date, including the critically panned “Boyz” in 2021.
Explaining the frenetic, over-the-top nature of her dance-pop track, Thirlwall said: “I didn’t want to do a safe first single, that was really important to me.
“I’m setting the tone of who I am as an artist on my own. I want people to hear it and be like ‘what the f*** is that song?’ My worst nightmare is for someone to hear my song and go ‘that’s nice’.”
Earlier this week, a producer who worked on Little Mix’s final single with Nelson, “No Time for Tears”, claimed that her backing vocals, along with some of her lead vocals, were recorded by an impersonator.
