Little Mix unveil odes to women like them at empowering London show | London Evening Standard (original) (raw)

With the newly reformed Spice Girls announcing in interviews that they’re abandoning girl power in favour of “people power”, Little Mix’s vocal support for feminism is more welcome than ever.

Previewing their fifth album, LM5, the quartet consistently advocated for friendship, self-love and embracing insecurities in the face of unrealistic beauty standards.

Supported by an all-female backing band and string quartet, the former X Factor champions swapped high-energy staging and frequent costume changes for more organic arrangements, low-key choreography and demure, monochrome dress.

Perched on stools for new track The Cure, their message of empowerment was delivered with flawless four-part harmonies against emotive piano chords. Similarly, Told You So preached the importance of supporting others among sweeping strings and stripped-back guitar.

On a more energetic tip, both the reggae-pop of Woman Like Me and trap-influenced Joan Of Arc set the stalls bouncing, as did outings of hits Shout Out To My Ex and Black Magic. Their new, more mature musical direction was further showcased with an exclusive first play of LM5 album track Strip, an ode to body confidence powered by kick drum and semi-rapped vocals, featuring a cameo from American MC Sharaya J.

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Though the repeated calls for empowerment were a little overdone, they never felt disingenuous thanks to the obvious affection the quartet have for each other. When Jade Thirlwall welled up during the second verse of their Cheat Codes-collaboration Only You, Perrie Edwards took her hand to steady her.

Songs were regularly punctuated by group hugs, and in a Q&A section hosted by Beats 1’s Julie Adenuga, Jesy Nelson paid tribute to the rest of the group as her “best mates”, saying, “I couldn’t live without these three.”