Between Us (Deluxe Version)

“There are too many bops to choose from, truth be told,” Little Mix’s Jade Thirlwall tells Apple Music. “So putting together a greatest hits was very hard to narrow down.” Thirlwall isn’t using hyperbole here: In 2021 they became the first girl band to have spent 100 weeks inside the Top 10 of the UK Singles Chart, and this hits collection follows six studio albums, sell-out tours, and an entire night out’s worth of karaoke classics. “We all have our favorites,” Leigh-Anne Pinnock says. “And we also listened to the fans and we know what they love. But Jade’s right: There are just so many. We sat back and thought, ‘How have we done this? Ten years’ worth of fucking tunes.’”

Little Mix, of course, is part of reality TV lore. Thirlwall, Pinnock, Perrie Edwards, and former member Jesy Nelson were carefully pieced together on the UK X Factor in 2011, and would become the first group to win the show. Much like One Direction, though, the band’s origin story fast became a footnote once the tidal wave of shape-shifting hits began rolling in. A decade on, Between Us allows the band an opportunity to celebrate their success. “It’s been overwhelming, actually,” says Thirlwall. “I’m proud of what we’ve achieved together and the evolution you can hear going through the records. [2012’s] DNA was just an experimental pop album, Salute [2013] was very much more to our specific tastes and a bit ahead of its time in terms of what the UK was after, and Get Weird [2015] was an absolutely glorious shitshow of out-there pop music. Then Glory Days [2016] literally did capture the glory days where we felt we did capture our place in the industry, [2018’s] LM5 was our coming-of-age record where we evolved into these ballsy women, and Confetti [2020] brings everything together. Every era has its own moment and stands for something different.” Read on as Pinnock, Edwards, and Thirlwall each choose their three favorite Little Mix songs from their band’s glorious first decade.

Leigh-Anne

“Touch”
“I feel like this was the moment people's ears pricked up and were like, ‘Oh, is this Little Mix?’ and we gained a new fanbase from it. It was our cool moment, I think. And no matter if you didn't even like Little Mix or if you weren't a fan, you loved ‘Touch.’ Just a really great moment for us. We did the video with Parris Goebel and the choreography was just epic. It’s also probably the most mature song that we've done.”

“Black Magic”
“I don’t want to say ‘Black Magic’ saved our career, because that sounds a little bit dramatic. But it definitely came out around a time we genuinely thought we were getting dropped by our label, put it that way. We'd scrapped a whole album and we were freaking out. And then [songwriter and artist] KAMILLE—our savior, our angel—came and gave us ‘Black Magic.’ Although it wasn’t completely instant in terms of us all loving it, if I’m honest. But I think we all knew deep down this was the song that was going to save everything.”

“Break Up Song”
“Perrie knows this is one of my absolute favorites. It reminds me of ‘Black Magic,’ but I think it’s a bit cooler. I feel the fans really responded to this song as we were going into the first lockdown in the UK [in March 2020] when it came out and people needed a bit of a pick-me-up—a bit of a boost.”

Perrie

“Shout Out to My Ex”
“It’s iconic. It’s epic. It still goes down really well when we do it live. Everyone seems to love it, I think because everyone can relate to it—and it definitely makes me just feel really good. Even when it comes on now, I just love it.”

“Power”
“This was unreal. It’s so empowering and just such a big song. I remember being in America at the time and our manager telling us that Stormzy really wanted to jump on a track, which we were obviously buzzing around. I adore his verse: a male artist talking about female empowerment. It’s a sick rap and such a good feature.”

“Sweet Melody”
“I’m surprised Leigh-Anne didn’t choose this one, actually. It got to No. 1 after staying around in the charts for months—it really grew organically. The music video is so cool, and it was lovely to do a really choreographed video again after such a long time. And we haven’t even had a chance to perform it live yet!”

Jade

“Wings”
“I’ll be honest, here. I am fuming because the girls took two of my faves. I was going to do ‘Touch’ and I was going to do ‘Sweet Melody’ but I will rejig. So ‘Wings’ is my first one. It was our first big single as a group, and we’d written it, so it meant a lot to us. And I feel that at the time, no one was writing pop music like that, so it was a bit of a statement as our first single to really establish who we were going to be. The melodies are great, and it’s one of those songs where we literally threw the kitchen sink in, but it works.”

“Secret Love Song” (feat. Jason Derulo)
“More so the album version, really, but it was a big single, too. It’s just one of those songs we loved and knew would do well, but it really did take a life of its own. I love that it was claimed by a lot of the LGBTQ+ fans as an anthem. And I love that that happened organically, because we certainly didn’t plan for that. It really hones in for us how diverse and inclusive our fanbase is, and how the community that we’ve built with our fanbase is so eclectic.”

“No More Sad Songs” (feat. Machine Gun Kelly)
“This is quite underrated as a single, and deserving of a bit more love. We were so busy at the time so didn’t have time to do a lot of promo for it. But I love the song. The video shoot in this old-school Nashville saloon was great fun and I got very drunk, Machine Gun Kelly’s verse is great, and it just reminds me of a really happy, fun time in our lives.”