Get ready Mixers, another solo project from our favourite pop girlies is almost upon us.
After Little Mix’s Jesy Nelson, Leigh-Anne Pinnock and Perrie Edwards have all ventured back onto the music scene as solo artists, Jade Thirlwall is finally ready to make her mark.
She’ll be releasing music under the mononym Jade, becoming the final member of the chart-topping group to drop a solo track.
And going on the teasers we’ve had so far, it’s set to be a moment.
Here’s what we know…
What is Jade’s first single called?
Jade’s first solo track is called Angel Of My Dreams, a title which has already got us intrigued.
What does it sound like?
Jade has released a few brief snippets of the new track, which begins with some tender R&B-inflected balladry as she sings: “It’s so bittersweet, I will always want you and need you, you don’t care.”
But the song quickly transitions to a bass-heavy dance moment, switching it up with some distorted vocals.
In another teaser, her vocals are sped-up (we’re not quite sure if this is the final version of the song), which she captioned on Instagram: “Better act like you’re lucky, hunny!”
Give them a listen below.
Who are Jade’s influences on her solo music?
Speaking in an recent cover interview with Beat magazine, Jade revealed she made a reference playlist for her solo music featuring Madonna, Britney Spears, Kylie Minogue, Janet Jackson and Diana Ross.
While she added that her solo sound has “evolved” since then, the singer explained that she “wanted to be a culmination of all of those people, because that’s what I grew up listening to”.
Jade continued: “I knew I wanted to be the pop girlie. I’m obsessed with pop, I always will be, so it was how do I become the next pop girlie that stands out and has something different.
“Sometimes [in the studio] I was feeling cunty, other days I wanted to do a house-y banger, then another it was like “Let’s get into Janet’s ‘Feedback’ world.”
Who did Jade work with on Angel Of My Dreams?
We know that she co-wrote Angel of My Dreams in Los Angeles with Steph Jones (who co-wrote Sabrina Carpenter’s Espresso), Pablo Bowman (who worked on Miracle by Calvin Harris and Ellie Goulding) and producer Mike Sabbath who collaborated with Raye on her award-winning debut album My 21st Century blues.
Is the song really a dig at Simon Cowell?
According to a report in The Sun back in April, the song will feature the lyric “sold my soul to a psycho” – a reference to Simon’s former record label Syco, which Little Mix left back in 2018.
However Jade cleared this up during her interview with Beat.
“It’s not specifically about that. But I wanted the song to be my journey, from entering the music business to now, and what that’s felt like,” she explained.
“That’s why the song feels so chaotic. The opening is like the music to that montage bit on The X Factor after you’ve won and you’re just catapulted into the industry.”
Instead, Jade revealed that the song came from a place of thinking about how “fickle the music industry is” and “thinking about how much I love this job but also how much I hate it, too”.
Is there a music video?
Excitingly, a music video will be arriving the same day as the single. A teaser snippet shared to Instagram features a montage of some pretty wild visuals that we really can’t work out just yet. These including a woman spitting into a coffee cup, a needle pricking a finger and a hench character wearing a tracksuit.
She also told Beat that there’ll be 11 looks in total.
“The concept is sort of rags to riches, and it was emotional actually, because for one bit I’m busking and walking past a Sainsbury’s Local,” she shared.
“When I was 16, I would stand outside my local Sainsbury’s and sing Christmas songs.”
Has she teased anything else?
Jade has teased a selection of visuals, photos and videos on Instagram with not much other context, which you can examine below.
What has Jade said about her solo music?
“What I’m going for is a pop punch to the face,” said Jade in a statement about the single. “I want people to be like ‘oh my god, I didn’t expect that’ – but then want to listen to it again.”
She continued: “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 fuck is that song?’
“My worst nightmare is for someone to hear my song and go ‘that’s nice’.”
What’s been the response from the rest of Little Mix?
It’s been no secret that Jade, Leigh-Anne and Perrie have been super supportive of one another’s solo ventures.
“Arghhhhhhhhhh I’m screaming! Literally screaming! Let’s go my girl,” wrote Leigh-Anne on Jade’s teaser post. “Ahhhh she’s coming!!!!” added Perrie.
However, as we know, the rest of the band aren’t exactly on good terms with Jesy after she left the band in December 2020.
“We don’t talk, and haven’t done for a long time,” Perrie said in a recent interview with Cosmopolitan. “It’s really sad, it’s heartbreaking. But sometimes these things happen and people decide they want to part ways, and that’s absolutely fine.
In her interview with Beat magazine, Jade explained how it was “weird” when the band first announced their break in 2021.
“Out of all the girls, I was the one that was going down with the ship, like, ‘just one more song!’” she said. “I was obsessed with the band. I really do think I was Little Mix’s biggest fan, so the thought of letting that go was really hard.”
Will Jade be releasing an album after Angel Of My Dreams?
While speaking to Beat magazine, Jade did make reference to a full-length record, sharing: “I’m very much a kitchen sink girl – I throw it all in. I want it all. When I look at a pop girl as a fan, I want the looks, the concepts, the big show, the glam. Everything.
“Then as I was finding myself, I thought it would be pretty cool if the album did sound like an experiment of finding what my sound is. It’s real.”
She added: “The main concepts of the album are my experiences in the industry, falling in love with Jordan and finding myself again.”
Jade has also teased plenty of pictures of her in the studio working on music on Instagram.
What else has she said about new music?
Elsewhere in her conversation with Beat magazine, Jade was asked how she felt about being the last member of the group to go solo, to which she said she was “happy” to be “taking that spot”.
She added that she “wanted the most time” to work on new music and figure out who she’s going to be as a solo artist.
Besides that, she did also speak about having worked with Tove Lo and reunited with MNEK (known for his work with everyone from Beyoncé, Madonna and Selena Gomez, as well as Little Mix) and Biff Stannard (pop songwriter for Spice Girls, Kylie Minogue, Ellie Goulding and more) in the lead up to Little Mix’s hiatus.
According to Capital FM, she’s also had studio sessions with the likes of Raye, Cirkut, Lostboy and Lauren Aquilina.
When is the new single out?
Angel Of My Dreams’ music video is set for release on 19 July 2024 – a perfect pop drop for New Music Friday, we’re sure you’ll agree.
But if you just can’t wait until then, it’s going to debut as BBC Radio 1′s Hottest Record on Thursday (July 18) at 6pm BST.