Leigh-Anne Pinnock says she felt “overlooked” as a member of girl group Little Mix in a “predominately white” fanbase and pop industry.
The singer, 31, originally shot to fame as part of the chart-topping four-piece after being formed on TV singing competition The X Factor back in 2011.
The original line-up comprised her, Perrie Edwards, Jade Thirlwall and Jesy Nelson, but Nelson left Little Mix in 2020 with the rest of the group disbanding in 2022.
Pinnock, who is a mum to one-year-old twins, is now embarking on a solo career with her debut single Don’t Say Love, which is released on Friday.
Reflecting on her time in Little Mix, she said: “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,” she told Vogue.
Clearly excited about this new chapter, she continued: “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.”
Despite this, Pinnock described being chosen to be part of Little Mix as “the best thing that ever happened”.
Earlier this month, Pinnock married her footballer fiancé Andre Gray, who currently plays for Greek club Aris, in a Jamaican wedding ceremony where the couple exchanged vows in front of their nearest and dearest.
