JADE admits she wouldn’t be where she is without The X Factor.
The 32-year-old pop sensation rose to prominence as one-fourth of Little Mix – alongside Perrie Edwards, Leigh-Anne Pinnock, and Jesy Nelson – after the group triumphed on the eighth series of Simon Cowell’s ITV talent show in 2011.
JADE had auditioned three times before finally breaking through with the chart-topping girl group, and despite calling out the show for its lack of support for its contestants, she openly acknowledges that without the show, her dream of making it in music might never have come true.
She told Michelle Visage for Interview magazine: “I did have a plan B, which was getting a fine arts degree in the hopes of designing theater sets and things like that, but making my own music was always the dream. I come from a very small, working-class northern town. It would’ve been incredibly hard to make my dreams a reality if it weren’t for shows like The X Factor. I tried every other avenue to get there, but I wouldn’t have been able to afford the move to London.”
JADE, who released her debut solo album, That’s Showbiz Baby, today (12.09.25), feels like she is “starting my career all over again”.
She said of her music video for her debut solo single Angel of my Dreams: “That’s why I wanted to use footage of myself when I was little singing karaoke. Even now, when I watch that video, I get emotional because I’m like, ‘Wow, it really shows where I started and where I’ve got to.’ But it still feels like the beginning. I’m starting my career all over again, and I feel so blessed that I get to do it on my own in my thirties. I’m so much more confident in my skin at this point in my life.”
JADE – who was crowned Best Pop Act at the 2025 BRIT Awards – is inspired by artists like Chappell Roan for not being afraid to set “boundaries”.
She reflected: “Back then, we would’ve done whatever it took to make it. That’s not to say I don’t work hard now, but we’ve earned our right to have better boundaries with work-life balance. I’m coming from an era in music when there were still physicals and you would do big TV shows and radio stations. It’s changed a lot because of social media. When I see artists like Chappell Roan standing up for themselves and being like, ‘I’m not okay with this,’ I’m like, ‘Oh, s***, I forgot that you can actually just say if you don’t want to do something.'”
On That’s Showbiz Baby, JADE gets candid about her love-hate relationship with the music industry.
It was previously suggested that the lyric “sold my soul to a psycho” from Angel of My Dreams was a dig at Cowell, but Jade later clarified that it was not necessarily the case.
She told Beat magazine: “It’s not specifically about that.
“But I wanted the song to be my journey, from entering the music business to now, and what that’s felt like. That’s why the song feels so chaotic.
“The opening is like the music to that montage bit on The X Factor after you’ve won, and you’re just catapulted into the industry.”
She added: “I don’t want to sit here and bash the last 13 years of my life. I’m very happy and content. But like with any job, there are highs and lows. That’s just life, and it’s my reality, but it’s about writing it in a way that’s not woe is me.”