Leigh-Anne Pinnock is feeling the pressure right now. The former Little Mix member is sitting with her hands clutched in an all black lace-and-leather look inside a meeting room at Vogue House, ready to reveal all about her very first solo project “Don’t Say Love”. “Everyone’s so excited to see what we’re going to do, what sound…” she says. “What if I disappoint?”
The 31-year-old does have quite the legacy to follow up. Until 2022, she was one quarter of Little Mix: the X Factor-winning girl band that achieved five Number 1 singles and a Number 1 album and finished their run with a history-making win as the first female band to win a Brit Award for Best Group.
“We smashed it as a band. We did so blooming well,” the High Wycombe-born, Surrey-residing star, and now mother to twins says of that time. Now, though, it’s all about her. Working on her first solo album in her Jamaican home was “such a liberating feeling because you don’t have to compromise.” In a group, there’s a lot of that. Not every song suits every voice, plus “all of us have to agree on what we were saying,” she explains. “Now it’s so amazing for us, because we can literally just say whatever we want straight from the heart.”
For Pinnock that means opening up about the tough side of being in a band: the comparisons, particularly as the only Black member of the group. As she discusses in her documentary, Leigh-Anne: Race, Pop & Power, “I was living in a very white world for most of my career,” she says.
“The pop industry is very white, we did have a predominately white fan base. It took me so long to understand why I was feeling so undervalued. I just blamed myself. My family would be like, ‘Oh, Leigh, you’re getting the same money. It’s fine.’ I just couldn’t accept that.” A tour stop in Brazil, where Black fans told her how big an impact she had had on them, changed her life. “Fans were chanting my name – I’ve never had a response like that and we’d been in the group for nine years,” she says.
This new record – which mixes R&B, amapiano, garage, and afrobeats into pop – gets into rediscovering her confidence, solo. One song, “I Did That”, reflects on her accomplishments. “I had these incredible girls around me, holding me and even though sometimes they might not have understood, they still had me,” she says, her voice wobbling as she tears up. “Oh, here she goes again getting upset, I knew it was going to happen!” The album will also discuss the trials and tribulation of motherhood and her relationship with Andre Gray. “Things aren’t perfect, and I get a bit deep with that.” But, building this family has grounded her. “It puts it all into perspective and changes you. Things don’t phase me as much, in a good way,” she smiles. “Now I feel so resilient.”
In your X Factor audition, you said you wanted to be the next Justin Bieber. Is that still the case?
Justin Bieber – that is hilarious! I was so young. When I was younger, I wouldn’t take no for an answer. I told everyone that I met was gonna be a pop star… But as a child, I was the most shy person ever. That audition was the one time I actually just let go. Before I would sing, but I would just look at the floor because that shy girl would still be there. I knew what I wanted and I would tell people that, but then when it came to it I kind of went into myself. Then something just clicked [in the audition] like, “this is your one chance”. And I did. Even my sister was like “who was that?!”
How do you look back on the judges putting you in a girl band now?
The best thing that ever happened.
Really?
One hundred percent. I feel like everything had to happen the way it did. I got to meet my sisters and be in the biggest girl band in the world and make music that touched people. We’ve created a long lasting legacy. I would not have been ready five years ago to do this. I remember when they said, I could see you in a girl band – I would have taken anything, I didn’t care, put me in any mixed group, whatever! There is this fire that I’ve had in me since I was younger and this is so important for me to show that younger self. Because when I was put into the group, it was like, “Oh, is this what it is? Is it this feeling supposed to come with it – not really feeling valued?” As much as I had the best time of my life, that pain is very much there. I owe it to my younger self to step out and do this on my own.
Your first three singles are about love. What do I need to know about them?
The first single, “Don’t Say Love” is about wanting to be loved wholeheartedly, [like] the love that I have for myself. If it’s not that, then I don’t want it. That’s a journey, getting there. Within the group and in my career, I really felt like a lot of the time I was overlooked and undervalued. I really wanted to get that emotion across in the video: frustration, sadness, anger. I wanted to get that across in my first single, so I could just leave that girl and that feeling in the past. “My Love” is a celebration of every type of love: owning who I am and stepping into my solo career and this new being, who gained all of her confidence back and knows who the fuck she is.
What about “Stealing Love”?
With the album, I really wanted to be as honest as possible with everything: motherhood, the highs, the lows, my relationship. Everything on Instagram looks perfect and nothing is. I wanted to show that in my relationship. It’s about somebody stealing love away from you – you give so much and they’re taking it and not giving enough in return. There’s stuff that I’m going to be unveiling about our relationship that’s scary. I’m getting married, he’s the love of my life, but we’ve been through shit. Fully showing something for what it is is a really vulnerable thing to do and that does petrify me, but at the same time, it’s life. Relationships are frickin’ hard work. If something is good enough to fight for then that’s the main thing.
What can we expect from the “Don’t Say Love” video?
The video is about trying to escape the feeling of being overlooked and undervalued. I’m a stunt woman in it, it’s mad! I dive into water to symbolise rebirth and letting go of that pain. Then I go into my love and step into this new person – or the person I always knew I was that I just lost on the way. The message I want people to take away is that we all deserve to be loved 100%.
What looks do you have planned?
I’ve always wanted to do fashion, I’ve always loved it. My fans always say that I’m the fashion girl of the group – even the girls used to say it. I’m excited to be able to push that even further: My looks, my hair, everything… I’m stepping into my elegance era. There’s eight looks in the video – so, I am serving guys, what more do you want from me?! Jenke Ahmed styled the video and he’s worked with Beyoncé as well. I [will] be able to experiment even more; now it’s just me you don’t have to worry about if you look a bit odd in the group.
What was your experience of fame?
You don’t really get a moment to prepare yourself for something like fame. I was so young, and social media had just kind of come about. It was all a bit of a shock, like “Oh, God, you are on view for people to say what they want to say about you.” I remember seeing one comment that said: “The Black girl sounds like a white girl and the white girl sounds like a Black girl.” I’ve never forgotten that. Those comments stick. But there’s always going to be negativity. I found myself in this massive drama on Twitter, maybe a month after giving birth, and one of the babies smiled at me for the first time. I was just like: “Well, this puts everything into perspective, doesn’t it?” All I had to do was put the phone down and it went away, because it’s not real.
I wonder if X Factor groups do so well because you hold each other accountable. You’re all supporting each other’s dreams and have to fight to be at the same pace.
Definitely! Being a girl band is hard enough as it is – we knew we had to work harder as women. That idea of not wanting to let each other down, always carrying each other was the good thing about being in a group. If one person was feeling a bit low, the others could mask it a bit and add the energy. It was a proper sisterhood, which I do miss.
Why did Little Mix disband?
We just kind of felt like we’d come to the end. We’d been together for so long, I think we all felt like it was time to spread our wings.
Is it nerve-wracking to start again, without that security blanket or safety net?
Yes! Yes! It’s so nerve-wracking. [When I did a] release with them, I had their hands to hold, we all were in it together. If it didn’t get number one, it was okay because we were going through it together. But as I said before, I’m so confident with the music. I’m proud and happy, so I’ve already won in that sense – that’s what I have to keep reminding myself of. Yeah, there’s a lot of pressure on it when there’s so many voices that want it to be a success and it’s all on me to make that happen. And nobody knows what a hit is anymore, it can be anything. But I think as long as you have the passion behind it, confidence, you work hard and persistence, anything’s possible in this industry.
What are your dreams for your solo career?
I just want to make music that people are inspired by and people are empowered by and to continue to use my voice and platform. Because I just think, why am I here otherwise? I would love to have my own tour. I don’t care if it’s two people in the audience – knowing that they are there because they love and value me and love what I do, I will be happy with that. I’m excited to have my babies there as well to witness it. They’ll be at an age where they understand it. That’ll set me right off.
“Don’t Say Love” is released Friday 16th June on Warner Records.
Source: British Vogue
