Leigh-Anne Pinnock: “We Thought We Were Going To Be In Little Mix For Ever”
Leigh-Anne Pinnock has spoken about her time in Little Mix and her solo material in a new interview with The Guardian.
“I always used to say: ‘Should I feel like this, having accomplished my dream?’” Pinnock said, reflecting on her former band’s success. “Why do I feel like I might as well not be here sometimes? Why does it feel like I’m not being noticed? Why do I feel invisible? Why am I not appreciated like the others? It just didn’t feel right.”
“Five years ago we had no plans to go solo. We loved the group, we thought we were going to be in Little Mix for ever,” she went on to say. “But after so long, you do start to wonder what it would be like to do something of your own, I guess. I can write whatever I want to and do whatever I want to do.”
Pinnock also discussed the pride she feels about her solo material, “I was listening to the radio the other day and [My Love] really does stand out. I feel like I’m carving something out here… I went through so much of my career not being able to be around other Black creatives, not being able to offload or relate,” she says. “I felt like I was alone a lot of the time. That’s why it’s so important to me now.”
“I’m still a pop girl at heart, but I want to explore the music that I love – music I grew up listening to, that is a part of me – and incorporate that into my work. I want the Black community to know me, and I want to be accepted in those spaces, without being put in a box.”