Goodbye Little Mix (For Now...): A Celebration of Leigh-Anne Pinnock, Perrie Edwards and Jade Thirlwall's prolific pop legacy
14.05.2022 - 02:07
/ officialcharts.com
It wasn’t supposed to work out. Girl groups were, notoriously, The X Factor’s most ill-fated export. Many had tried; Kandy Rain, Hope, Belle Amie. All had failed.
Rhythmix’s fate was already sealed; their fifteen minutes mapped out for them. A tour of sticky-floored Oceana club PAs, performing Ke$ha covers to pissed-up students, before their names were confined to ‘where are they now?’ clickbait forever more.
Then, the unthinkable happened.
Week after week Jade Thirlwall, Leigh-Anne Pinnock, Perrie Edwards and Jesy Nelson progressed to the next stage of the live shows. An air of scepticism still surrounding them, the group showed early signs of breaking The X Factor’s age-old girl band curse.
The girls’ pre-performance VTs, famously filled with sob stories and awkwardly-scripted pleas, proved unusually innate. A natural chemistry radiated, with speeches of solidarity and bold statements of sisterhood.
In the same way the Spice Girls had recruited a generation of young women in the ‘90s, Rhythmix were resonating with a demographic all too often misunderstood. Girls related to their vulnerabilities. Loved their outfits (for better or for worse, at that point). Wanted to join their gang.
Though showing promise, the patriarchal world of pop holds no prisoners; not least a bunch of young women with a relentless dream of becoming the next Baby Spice. While One Direction had proved a phenomenon the year prior, Rhythmix would likely have to work twice as hard to succeed.
No sooner had their X Factor journey started, than Rhythmix hit their first obstacle. With a charity already having trademarked the Rhythmix name, the girls were forced to change theirs. “We're the same girls as we've always been and we want to thank all of our