Jade Amelia Thirlwall (born 26 December 1992) is an English singer-songwriter. She rose to prominence as a member of the girl group Little Mix, who took part on the eighth series of The X Factor in 2011. With the group, Thirlwall achieved nineteen top-ten singles, five number-ones, and six top-five studio albums on the UK Albums Chart, becoming the first girl group to achieve this milestone and also the first girl group to spend a total of 100 weeks within the top 10 of the UK Singles Chart.[1] In 2022, she signed a recording contract with RCA Records following the group's hiatus and is set to release her debut studio album in 2024.[2]
In addition to her solo work, Thirlwall signed a songwriter's publishing deal in 2019 with Sony/ATV Music, and shares songwriting credits for Little Mix, Twice, Billy Porter, Britney Spears, Iggy Azalea, and Nayeon. Aside from music, she is an ambassador for Stonewall and is noted for her political reviews and social activism, advocating for LGBTQ+ rights, the ban against transgender conversion therapy in the UK and Black Lives Matter. Her involvement with charity work earned her the Gay Times Honour for Allyship in 2021.
Early life
Jade Amelia Thirlwall was born on 26 December 1992 in South Shields, Tyne and Wear, England, to parents Norma Badwi and James Thirlwall. She has an older brother called Karl.[3] She has Egyptian and Yemeni descent from her mother's side and English descent from her father's.[4] Thirlwall identifies as mixed-race,[5] and is learning to connect more with her Arab-Egyptian-Yemeni heritage and its language in hopes of travelling more to the Middle East.[4]
As a child, she attended Muslim school to learn how to read and write in Arabic and attended church.[6][7] During her teenage years she attended performing arts college at South Tyneside.[8] In 1943, Thirlwall's grandfather Mohammed Ahmed Saleh Badwi, a devoted Muslim, emigrated to South Shields, from Yemen, and worked as a firefighter in the merchant navy, and as a laborer at the docks. He met his wife Amelia in South Shields. Thirlwall's great-grandfather was from Egypt.[9][10]
In 2008, at the age of 15, Thirlwall auditioned for The X Factor UK, singing "Where Do Broken Hearts Go" by Whitney Houston,[11] but was eliminated at the boot- camp stage. She returned for a second time in 2010, but was unsuccessful.[12] In 2011, at age 18, Thirlwall returned for the show's eighth series and auditioned with "I Want to Hold Your Hand" by the Beatles, and advanced to bootcamp stage.[13] After failing the first challenge she was placed into a group named "Orion" with Leigh-Anne Pinnock. Perrie Edwards and Jesy Nelson, both were in another group called "Faux Pas". Both groups were later eliminated. Edwards, Thirlwall, Pinnock, and Nelson were called back by the judges and placed into another group originally known as Rhythmix. They progressed to the judges' houses and reached the live shows where they were mentored by Tulisa Contostavlos.[14]
On 28 October 2011, it was announced that the group name had changed to Little Mix, because of legal issues.[15][16][17] On 11 December 2011, Little Mix was announced as the first group to win the series. They also became the first girl group to make it past week seven of the live shows, the first girl group to reach The X Factor final and the first and only girl group to win the show.[18][19][20]
Thirlwall shares songwriting credits for more than 50 songs, across Little Mix's six studio albums. She has co-written two UK number one singles with "Wings" in 2012 and "Shout Out to My Ex" in 2016. In 2019, she was recognised as an official songwriter after signing with Sony/ATV.[21] Since Little Mix's debut they have been cited for helping the girl band renaissance in the UK and for re-defining girl groups.[22] They have gone onto become one of the best-selling girl groups and one of Britain's biggest selling acts. In December 2021, the group announced they would be going on a hiatus, after The Confetti Tour in 2022 to allow its members to pursue solo projects.[23]
2022–present: Solo career and projects
On 1 March 2022, Thirlwall appeared on RuPaul's Drag Race, special UK vs The World series.[24] On 2 March 2022, she made her acting debut and a cameo appearance in the British musical television drama series Mood.[25][26] In the same month, she signed a recording contract with RCA Records in the UK and USA and with Full Stop Management.[27][28] In May 2022, in collaboration with Sink The Pink's Manifesto for Misfits Book, Thirlwall wrote about her experiences with bullying, anorexia and her identity issues because of her mixed race.[29]
On 24 June, she co-wrote a track for Nayeon's debut album, Im Nayeon, marking the second time she had worked with the artist after she contributed to Twice's album Taste of Love in 2021.[30] Thirlwall won Cover of the Year at the PPA Awards in 2022 for her Gay Times Honours Special Issue for 2021.[31] In November 2022, she appeared on Heat magazine's "UK and Ireland 30 under 30" rich list for the first time with an estimated net worth of £17.5 million.[32]
"Doing a lot of performing arts growing up and stuff, I’ve always been surrounded by a lot of LGBTQ+ friends that have been in theatre school with me or at school. When we used to go on holiday Benidorm, one of the favourite things was when me mam used to the drag shows. Me mam’s always been into the glitz and the glamour [of drag] and her idol and my idols are Dana Ross, and all the big divas. And I think for me growing up, whenever I saw drag shows as a little girl, I associated drag queens with the big divas. It’s something that we’ve always loved".[43]
Personal life
Since 2020, Thirlwall has been in a relationship with British singer Jordan Stephens, from the hip hop duo Rizzle Kicks. The pair started dating in 2020 after first being spotted together at a Black Trans Lives Matter rally in central London.[44][45]
Thirlwall has multiple tattoos. On her spine, she has an Arabic tattoo that reads "Anyone can achieve their dreams if they’ve got the courage" as a tribute to her Egyptian and Yemeni ancestry, as well as a tattoo on her ribcage that means "queen" in Arabic. She also has tattoos located on her feet, and in 2019 revealed a henna-style design on her right foot. In 2021, she got a tattoo on her leg to commemorate the day Little Mix were formed in celebration of the group's 10 year anniversary.[46]
Thirlwall is open about her struggles with body image, racism, bullying, and eating disorder, which she first developed at that age of 13. As a child and teenager she experienced prejudice and racism for her mixed ethnicity, recalling in an interview for Vogue Arabia:
"At school, I didn’t fit into any group, and started to experience prejudice and racism. I was one of the very few people of color in the school, so from the off I felt like an outcast. I used to get called the P-word, which I didn’t understand as I’m not Pakistani. I was also called half-caste. During one incident someone pinned me down in the toilets and put a bindi spot on my forehead. There was a complete lack of education and understanding of different races and faiths. It affected my mental health. I became very depressed and it triggered the eating disorder I had throughout school."[47]
Thirlwall began recovery and left the hospital weeks before she auditioned for The X Factor in 2011.[48] In 2020, she was featured in a documentary titled Leigh-Anne: Race, Pop & Power, and spoke about the time that she wanted cosmetic surgery after discovering her images were heavily edited to make her look as "white as possible" during her earlier days in Little Mix.[49]
Endorsements and fashion
Thirlwall is a patron for Cancer Connections and an ambassador for Stonewall.[50][51] In November 2019, Thirlwall opened her own cocktail bar, called Arbeia, in South Shields.[52] In June 2020, she collaborated with Skinnydip London, a British clothing brand, with the money from her collection being donated to help struggling families in South Shields. In the same year she launched a second collaboration with them.[53] In August 2020, she was announced as the Honorary President for South Shields F.C. and became a shareholder for the club in the same year.[54][55]
In September 2020, she was photographed alongside Heidi Klum, Lil Nas and Helen Christensen by fashion campaign Christian Cowan for his Spring/Summer 2021 collection.[56] On 10 September 2021, Thirlwall was announced as the new face ambassador of the Italian sportswear brand, Ellesse "Autumn/Winter" collection.[57][58] On 11 October 2021, she released her own eyeshadow palette in collaboration with Beauty Bay.[59][60] She has also graced the cover for Interview (magazine), Vogue Arabia, and Gay Times Magazine, which won cover of the year at the PPA Awards in 2022.[61][38][62]
Activism
She is noted for her political reviews and social activism, advocating for LGBTQ+ rights, ban against transgender conversion therapy in the UK, and Black Lives Matter. In May 2014, she donated a haul of clothes, with all of the proceedings going to the homeless.[63] In 2017, Thirlwall donated another collection of her clothes to help raise money for Cancer Connections. In the same year she helped raised money for Stonewall at her drag-themed 25th birthday party.[64] In May 2018, she also spoke at the Stonewall Youth Awards about what it meant to be an ally and encouraged more artists to do the same.[65] In 2018, she became an LGBTQ+ rights ambassador for LGBTQ+ charity Stonewall,[66] and in 2018, attended Manchester Pride with them.[67]
In 2019, Thirlwall and Michelle Visage raised £10,000 for the Mermaids UK, and in the same year she climbed Mount Kilimanjaro to raise funds for Comic Relief's Red Nose Day with Leigh-Anne Pinnock, and other British celebrities.[68] In December 2019, she spent her birthday raising money for cancer charities which has become a yearly tradition for her.[69] In 2020, she attended a march with Stonewall during Manchester Pride and took to social media to call out someone who questioned the importance of pride month.[70]
In June 2020, Thirlwall attended a Black Lives Matter protest in the UK that surfaced due to the death of an African-American man George Floyd, and attended the Black Trans Lives Matter march in London.[71][72] In July 2020, she called L'Oréal, for not supporting the black trans community after their treatment towards model Munroe Bergdorf.[73] In 2020, she called out the media after journalists had mistaken her for band member Leigh-Anne Pinnock. A journalist had used an image of her in an article that was focused around Thirlwall. In the interview she revealed that journalists often confuse the pair during interviews and that photographers often shout Pinnock's name at her whenever she is attending events.[74]
In January 2021, Thirlwall won the fourth series of The Great Stand Up to Cancer Bake Off.[75][76] In March 2021 she partnered up with UNICEF to learn about the war in Yemen.[77] In July 2021, she signed an open letter to the UK Equalities minister Liz Truss calling for a ban on all forms of LGBT+ conversion therapy.[78] In October 2022, she wrote an open letter for the Gay Times, Sink The Pink book; detailing her experiences with bullying and how she learned to use the "insults as fuel."[79] She also teamed up with a designer to create a limited edition community shirt for a North East football club, for all donations to be donated to charity Cancer Connections.[80] Thirlwall attended the Not Safe To Be Me protest at Downing Street to ban transgender conversion therapy in the UK, following the government's reversal on the issue.[81]
In November 2023, Thirlwall expressed support for Palestinian people and called for a ceasefire in the 2023 Israel-Hamas war.[1]
^"Ban Conversion Therapy on Instagram". Instagram. 10 July 2020. Archived from the original on 21 August 2020. Retrieved 29 July 2020. Our letter to government urging for a ban of conversion therapy has complete backing from some incredible #LGBTQ+ public figures and allies. It's supported by every leading UK #LGBT charity and human rights organisation. And now we need you're help. Use our resources, educate yourselves, write to your MP, chat to your families and SPREAD 👏🏻 THE 👏🏻 WORD. #BanConversionTherapy #ConversionTherapy #ShitYouShouldCareAbout
^"Leigh-Anne Pinnock". National Diversity Awards. 17 November 2020. Archived from the original on 28 March 2021. Retrieved 19 October 2021.
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