NEWS
Little Mix’s Leigh-Anne is stepping out to launch her solo career.
The British singer drops “Don’t Say Love,” her first solo number after 11 years with the award-winning, chart-topping pop act.
Produced by Jon Bellion and Pete Nappi, and co-written by Aldae, “Don’t Say Love” is a beats-heavy nugget with lashings of U.K. garage.
The single, through Warner Music, “is about no longer seeking external validation and regaining my confidence and sense of self in a world where I often felt misunderstood and unheard,” she explains.
It’s accompanied with an official music video, helmed by Emil Nava, which creatively captures Leigh-Anne’s transformation — out with the old, in with the new era. The video is a “visual representation of me finding my voice,” she continues. “I’m excited to continue to do so with my first love, music.”
Little Mix capped a massive career with the 2021 Brit Award for best group, becoming the first girl group to win the category. “It’s not easy being a female in the U.K. pop industry,” Leigh-Anne said from the BRITs podium. “We’ve seen white male dominance, misogyny, sexism and lack of diversity. We’re proud of how we’ve stuck together, stood our ground, surrounded ourselves with strong women, and are now using our voices more than ever.”
Formed in 2011 on the U.K.’s X Factor, with an original lineup of Leigh-Anne Pinnock, Jade Thirlwall, Perrie Edwards and Jesy Nelson, who split from the act in December 2020, Little Mix were major hitmakers in their homeland.
Prior to entering an extended hiatus in 2022, Little Mix racked up five U.K. No. 1 singles, and a best-selling album, 2016’s Glory Days. They’re the first girl group to log 100 weeks in the U.K. singles chart top 10, landing 19 titles in the top tier. Two of their albums 2012’s DNA (No. 4) and 2014’s Salute (No. 6) cracked the top 10 on the Billboard 200 chart.
Career record sales top 75 million, and the act have accumulated over 15 billion streams, according to Warner Music.
Stream “Don’t Say Love” below.
Lizzo has made it clear that she never abandoned her album Love in Real Life.
The “Juice” artist recently responded to rumors that the project had been cancelled after fans expected it to arrive last year. Rather than putting out the album at the time, Lizzo instead released the mixtape My Face Hurts From Smiling in June.
During a new conversation with Billboard, the “Truth Hurts” singer explained that the album itself was never scrapped and is still the same body of work she plans to release on June 5 under its new title, B**ch.
“I think the biggest misconception about my album is that I shelved Love in Real Life when I didn't,” she said. “(B**ch) is technically the same album. I just changed the name. The music is the same.”
Lizzo shared that the main difference between the earlier version of the project and the upcoming release was taking away the original title track, which eventually led to the album being renamed.
“When you change the name of something, it changes its destiny,” the singer explained. “Like, when I went from Melissa to Lizzo, it changed my destiny.”
“When this album went from Love in Real Life to Bch, it changed the trajectory of its past,” she continued. “I do think that I feel like I can express myself the way that I want to express myself right now through Bch. I think Love in Real Life was really sombre and a little bit more introspective, and I think B**ch is a little bit more empowered and self actualised and bold.”
Before the newly titled album arrives, Lizzo has already released the singles B**ch and Don’t Make Me Love U.
The artist had previously spoken about stepping away from Love in Real Life during an earlier interview with Vulture, saying the project “just wasn't what I was feeling right now”.
She also mentioned that much of the album had originally been written back in 2022.
“By 2025, I've changed, the world has changed so much, and so much has happened,” she said. “I was like, ‘I need to do s**t differently, and I don't know what it is, but I'm going to just start following my instincts.’”
