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Little Mix's startling rise to win the eighth series of UK TV show The X Factor in 2011 broke the mould of talent show winners. The girl band were not only the first group to win the show, but they were also unique in that none of the members - Perrie Edwards, Jesy Nelson, Leigh-Anne Pinnock and Jade Thirlwall - knew one another before the competition. All the girls originally entered as solo acts and made it through to boot camp, but failed at the first stage. Instead of discarding them completely, however, the judges ripped up the rule book to give them the chance to work in different ensembles with other contestants. Initially, Perrie Edwards and Jesy Nelson formed a unit called Faux Pas, while Leigh-Anne Pinnock and Jade Thirlwall were part of a trio called Orion. Both again failed to make the cut but were given a further chance to progress and ended up together as a four-piece, originally called Rhythmix, switching to Little Mix due to a name clash with a children's charity. From that point they didn't look back, their personalities and close harmonies proving a big hit with fans and they went on to beat Marcus Collins to take the final. Their debut single, a cover of Damien Rice's “Cannonball,” topped the UK Singles Chart in December 2011. In 2012 Little Mix released their first album, with Gary Barlow among the songwriters collaborating with them. The album, DNA, reached Number 3 in the UK Albums Chart and Number 4 on the Billboard 200, breaking them into the American market. They followed up with Salute in 2013, which scored them a Number 4 on the UK Albums Chart and Number 6 on the Billboard 200, with Get Weird in 2015 managing Number 2 in the UK and Number 13 on the 200. 2016 saw them return to the studio to work on their fourth album, which was preceded by the Number 1 single “Shout Out to My Ex.” The album, Glory Days, fared just as well, with a Number 1 spot on the UK Albums Chart. Following a promotional tour opening for Ariana Grande, Little Mix headlined their own tour that year and returned with LM5 (2018), which featured Nicki Minaj on the single “Woman Like Me,” and Confetti (2020), released in the wake of the premiere of Little Mix The Search, their own talent show on BBC One. Between Us, their first greatest hits compilation, arrived in 2021 and climbed to Number 4 on the UK Albums Chart. That year, the group announced they would be going on another hiatus after the completion of their Confetti Tour in 2022.
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