{"id":300865,"date":"2026-02-20T10:33:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T10:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/300865\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T10:33:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T10:33:08","slug":"leigh-anne-my-label-ghosted-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/300865\/","title":{"rendered":"Leigh-Anne: ‘My label ghosted me"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cDelusional\u201d is the word Leigh-Anne Pinnock uses to describe herself when she first appeared on The X Factor<\/a>, aged 19. When I mention that I had just been watching the Little Mix<\/a> star\u2019s audition video to prep for this interview, she cuts in: \u201cOh Jesus Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a bit different from the clips of, say, Harry Styles<\/a> or Leona Lewis<\/a>, who walk out slightly shy or unsure of themselves. Pinnock, who worked at Pizza Hut at the time, stridently declares: \u201cI wanna be the next big thing. I want to be a pop icon,\u201d before launching into Rihanna\u2019s \u201cOnly Girl in the World\u201d, in which she belts, jumps and marches around the stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had so much energy,\u201d she tells me today, with the clearer, gentler tone that comes with over a decade\u2019s experience in the industry. Her voice is still bright and upbeat, and she speaks informally. \u201cI was just so determined.\u201d <\/p>\n

Hindsight is, of course, kind to Pinnock. After she was placed in Little Mix during The X Factor in 2011, the girl group went on to become one of the most successful in history. They amassed a dizzying number of accolades: first group to win The X Factor, first female group to win a group award at The Brit Awards, seven MTV Europe awards, the most awarded act at the Global Awards, five UK No 1s, billions of views on their YouTube videos over the course of 10 years.<\/p>\n

\"MANCHESTER,Leigh-Anne Pinnock, headlining last year\u2019s Manchester Pride, is now releasing her first solo album (Photo: Shirlaine Forrest\/WireImage)<\/p>\n

The pop group, made up of Pinnock, Perrie Edwards<\/a>, Jade Thirlwall<\/a> and Jesy Nelson<\/a>, quickly achieved a kind of millennial omnipresence \u2013 with \u201cShout out to My Ex\u201d blaring through the airwaves and the nation\u2019s clubs for the best part of 2017.<\/p>\n

But Pinnock\u2019s confidence was a source of tension for her in childhood. Growing up in the small Buckinghamshire town of High Wycombe, she had initially been painfully shy. \u201cI would literally hide behind my dad\u2019s legs and say I hated people \u2013 that\u2019s how shy I was,\u201d she says. Her camera is turned off on our video call, which she is joining from Brazil, so I turn mine off too to be polite.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I got a bit older, I realised that I wanted to sing, and [thought], how can I be a singer if I am so shy?\u201d Pinnock struggled to look at the crowd while singing, looking at the floor, with the backing track playing too loud. She started singing in talent shows, debating in class and standing up for her friends more.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I developed some haters from standing up for my friends, and then all of a sudden their beef was my beef.\u201d To make matters worse, Pinnock was telling everyone she was going to be a pop star. She recalls singing in a youth group in her local theatre, the Wycombe Swan, and being heckled during her solo. \u201cA girl in the audience just went: \u2018dead!\u2019\u201d she cries out. \u201c[It was] a girl that I was having some trouble with.\u201d She wonders whether people saw her newfound confidence as arrogant: \u201cMaybe people might have thought, \u2018Oh, she thinks she\u2019s too nice.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

These reflections around confidence, and what it means to stick your head above the parapet, are returning for Pinnock as she breaks away from Little Mix to go solo. The group has been on indefinite hiatus since 2022<\/a>, two years after band member Jesy Nelson quit, citing struggles with her mental health<\/a>. Since then, each of the stars has released solo material, and Pinnock, Edwards and Thirlwall have been followed by speculation surrounding Nelson\u2019s departure \u2013 with the star claiming in a documentary last week that she was not supported by the band members, and that another member had wanted to leave before her. <\/p>\n

\"MIDDLESBROUGH,As the only black member of Little Mix, Leigh Anne Pinnock (second left) says she struggled to find her place (Photo: Jo Hale \/ Redferns)<\/p>\n

Pinnock will be the third to release a full-length album, provocatively titled: My Ego Told Me To. The journey to getting it released has not been straightforward \u2013 Pinnock fell out with Warner Records during production and parted ways with them in 2025. They\u2019d been working on \u201cMost Wanted\u201d, a dancehall-infused song, which ultimately features Jamaican artists Valiant and Rvssian. Partially written in her grandfather\u2019s homeland of Jamaica, lots of the album feels Caribbean, but this song particularly so, with patois lyrics and an energetic beat.<\/p>\n

After lots of back and forth on the song, Pinnock says the label ghosted her. \u201cThey just kept making me do versions and it was taking the essence out of the song,\u201d she says. \u201cI hadn\u2019t had a single out in a year and was getting really worried\u2026 and then all of a sudden they\u2019re ghosting us, and nothing\u2019s moving forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just don\u2019t understand how people can treat humans like that. Like this is my career, it\u2019s my life and you\u2019re just making me feel disposable,\u201d she says gravely. \u201cYes it\u2019s a business, but we are still humans\u2026 it\u2019s just not cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

After that, she went to Amsterdam and worked with producers Clarence \u201cCoffee\u201d Jr and Owen Cutts. Writing in a \u201crage\u201d, she made \u201cDead and Gone\u201d, \u201cLook Into My Eyes\u201d and \u201cRevival\u201d \u2013 three other songs with reggae, dancehall and lovers\u2019 rock samples and references. \u201cAll of these tracks have this kind of assurance and\u2026 attitude about them,\u201d she tells me. \u201cI\u2019ve never really had that in a song before\u2026 it just felt really unique\u2026 everything felt like mine.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Pinnock was excited that she\u2019d finally found her sound, and felt that Warner would be happier with the result. But the label said no. \u201cThey said they don\u2019t think it\u2019s going to do what I think it\u2019s going to do.\u201d Pinnock went independent: \u201cI was like, \u2018Cool, all right, bye, I need to get out of here\u2026 it\u2019s just crazy at this point.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

She tells me: \u201cI feel like a lot of labels don\u2019t put trust in mixed black women that are doing black music\u2026 I think that\u2019s something that needs to be spoken about.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Little Mix, Pinnock had struggled to find her place. \u201cI went through a stage [of]: \u2018Oh, should I be the sexy one? Should I wear the snapbacks?\u2019\u201d she says. \u201cI don\u2019t know, it didn\u2019t really ever feel like it was right.\u201d <\/p>\n

This search for identity and individuality is a well-trodden path for girl band members, but Pinnock\u2019s was complicated by her position as the only black member of the band<\/a>. At public appearances, she says fans would chant other band members\u2019 names, and just walk past her. It got to the point where she\u2019d make self-deprecating jokes about herself: \u201cThey don\u2019t care about me anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n

She says that, in hindsight, it\u2019s obvious that it was to do with race. But, again, unsure of herself, Pinnock felt she needed to change. \u201cI was still thinking, \u2018Oh God, maybe I just need to improve. Maybe I don\u2019t talk enough in interviews.\u2019 I tried everything,\u201d she says. \u201cI got extra vocal lessons, I was trying to be funnier\u2026 It was crazy. I was picking myself apart.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2021, following the global Black Lives Matter<\/a> protests, Pinnock made a BBC documentary Race, Pop and Power<\/a>, in which she uncovered shared experiences with other black singers like Alexandra Burke<\/a> and Sugababes\u2019 Keisha Buchanan. She also talked about it to bandmate Jade, who is mixed Egyptian, Yemeni and English. Pinnock was on a journey: the documentary features clips of her watching videos about anti-racism while furiously notetaking. She tells me that reading Reni Eddo-Lodge\u2019s bestseller Why I\u2019m No Longer Talking to White People About Race<\/a> was a turning point for her.<\/p>\n

Certain experiences from The X Factor started to fall into place. \u201cI remember a couple of times my lines got taken away,\u201d she tells me, recounting another moment when she felt she was being made to audition again. For her makeover on the show, the producers shaved the side of her head and dyed the rest of her hair red, to mimic Rihanna. She wrote in her 2023 memoir Believe: \u201cRather than encourage me to be myself\u2026 they tried to simply copy and paste an identity from somewhere else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Discussions about race have a complicated gravitational pull. Sometimes you want to talk about it and you\u2019re silenced, other times you don\u2019t want to talk about it and you\u2019re made to. At one point, when Pinnock and I are getting deep into the subject of race, her PR representative moves us on, asking if we could talk about the music, and I wonder what kind of instance this one might be.<\/p>\n

We move on, but it\u2019s all there mixed up in the music: Pinnock trying to find her own identity as a mixed-race black person \u2013 but within that, being a unique individual in her own right. Songs on My Ego Told Me To oscillate between a tender uncertainty and unabashed confidence, perhaps best summed up by the mid-album lyric \u201cI\u2019m fighting for the best version of me\u201d. On the album cover, Pinnock has returned to her fiery red X Factor hair.<\/p>\n

Despite her distance from speculation surrounding Little Mix, Pinnock proudly claims the fallout with her label as an exercise in self-determination, a callback to her younger self. \u201cWhere is that younger version who wouldn\u2019t take no for an answer, [who] would stand up for herself and wouldn\u2019t let doubts creep in?\u201d she asks me. \u201cShe was that delusional, determined, fierce girl. I just felt like I needed to bring that back.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018My Ego Told Me To\u2019 is out now<\/p>\n

\t\tYour next read<\/p>\n


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