Leigh-Anne: “I Want To Create Something Unique To Me”
Leigh-Anne has spoken about going solo after leaving Little Mix and taking inspiration from her heritage in a new interview with Rolling Stone UK.
Little Mix announced a hiatus in late 2001, at which point Leigh-Anne decided to go solo. “When I got in the group, that’s all I ever saw; I didn’t ever see beyond it, because I just wanted us to be massive, I wanted us to be huge,” she says of those early years. “It wasn’t really until we started having those conversations about bringing this to an end where I was like, ‘I can do this.’ I wasn’t ready to not sing. And once upon a time, my dream was to be a solo pop star. I went into something else, and I had the best time of my life, and I don’t think I could have done it any other way. But I feel like I owe this to the younger me. I owe her more.”
The singer went on to describe the early songwriting sessions for her solo career, held in Jamaica. “My grandad lived there, so we used to go to see him every year,” she said. “It’s a part of me, it’s my favourite place in the world; it’s somewhere I can go and just breathe and be. So, the fact I got to make music there – and make music inspired by my culture – was just an amazing feeling.”
Going solo has meant that Leigh-Anne has an opportunity to make the music that is truest to herself, as she reflected, “Musically, I think I just wanted to be able to explore Black music in a way that I’ve never been able to do in the group before. “It’s music that I love, that I love to listen to, and that is me. I want to create something that is unique to me.”