Jade Thirlwall used to sing with Jamie Lambert from Collabro.
The Little Mix singer, 23, grew up in South Shields near Newcastle upon Tyne, north England, and long before she joined the international girl group, Jade used to perform with Jamie and ended up becoming a big fan of the operatic boy band.
Tom Redgrave exclusively told BANG Showbiz: "Jamie and Jade are from the same place, South Shields, and they used to sing together when they were younger, so they have always known each other, which is nice.
"When we started doing well, through Jamie’s friendship with her, she became a fan."
Over the years, Jade has been a huge supporter of the group – which also includes Matt Pagan, Michael Auger and Richard Hadfield – particularly when they did a live cover performance of ‘I’ll Be There For You’ at the iconic London Palladium.
Jamie previously shared: "Our album ‘Act Two’ is full of these huge key changes and really big songs and suddenly it gets totally stripped back. At the Palladium, Jade from Little Mix was in the audience and we do a really slow version of the song and it’s really about harmonies and beauty.
"We did ‘So no-one told you life was gonna be this way" and then Jade went [token Friends claps] and it was incredibly off-putting and it got to such a famous moment that by the end of the tour the whole orchestra did it. What they didn’t realise was we all had our in-ears in and they have little microphones so I almost jumped off the piano because I was so frightened."
Jade Thirlwall and Collabro’s Jamie Lambert were singing pals
