Little Mix Music Secrets: Who Is ‘Glory Days’ Really About?

Little Mix finally dropped their new album, Glory Days. The girl group is also getting ready for their upcoming tour with Ariana Grande at the start of 2017. Members Perrie Edwards and Jade Thirwall revealed to Entertainment Weekly the secret ingredients that have made them successful across the pond.

Little Mix have admitted that their musical influences are all over the place. Glory Days reflects that and will have “something for everyone,” Edwards says about their influence. The girls also have natural chemistry for four random girls who were thrown together on the set of The X Factor UK. Edwards also admitted that they have co-written most of their material on their fourth album.

“When we were on The X Factor,” Edwards said, “contestants were walking into the room with the producers, saying, ‘What should I do, what should I sing?’ [We] would walk in and say, ‘This is what we want to do, this is the harmony, this is the arrangement.”

“You don’t have to be in a rock band to write your own music,” added Thirwall.

The other secrets to Little Mix’s success is that they want to take the U.S. by storm and that they are open and honest with their fans. Their new book, Our World, talks about their highs and lows. Thirwall opened up about her struggle with anorexia as a teenager, while Edwards addressed her split with ex-fiance Zayn Malik.

“It was hard,” Thirwall said, “but it was important for us to show our fans that we are normal girls and go through things a lot of people go through.”

Now that you know some of the secrets to Little Mix’s success, here are some secrets about their new album. Are most of the tracks about Edwards’ split from Malik? Fans have speculated whether their new single “Shout Out To My Ex” is about Edwards’ ex and it seems like it is. The other alleged tracks, “F.U.,” “You Gotta Not,” and “No More Sad Songs,” are also said to be about him, according to Teen Vogue.

Edwards and Leigh-Anne Pinnock dished to Billboard as to why this album meant so much to each and every one of them.

“With Get Weird, it just didn’t seem to be working,” Pinnock said. “Like we couldn’t get the right songs, it just wasn’t jelling. And this time around, I feel like we’ve had so much to write about it just happened. It felt natural.”

Edwards agreed with Pinnock, adding how “natural” the songwriting and recording process was. During one of their songwriting sessions, Edwards explained that one of the writers they were working with suggested a frozen yogurt run when everyone was struggling to write.

“So we ordered an Uber, jumped into the car, and stayed at the mall for about half an hour just eating frozen yogurt,” laughed Edwards. “We wrote one of our favorite songs on the album in like 10 minutes after that. I guess it was the sugar rush.”

Little Mix is heading to North America in support of Ariana Grande’s Dangerous Woman World Tour. They are not sure what songs will be on the set list for their opening act, but Edwards hopes it’s their sexy new track “Touch.” Pinnock said she wants to sing the ballad “Nobody Like You” because it showcases each singer’s powerful vocals.

Don’t assume that Glory Days is filled with sad songs and breakup anthems. According to Billboard, it’s packed with girl power anthems like “Power,” “F.U.,” and of course, “Shout Out To My Ex.” Little Mix was able to combine their highest-highs and their lowest-lows on the album, which is another little-known secret to their success.

“The reason we called the album Glory Days is because we’re gonna look back on this time and say it was the glory days, the best time of our life,” Edwards explained. “Hopefully our fans can share that with us.”

“We’ve heard a lot of people say we’ve changed their lives with our music. That’s what we set out to do,” Pinnock added.

Glory Days officially dropped on Friday, Nov. 18 on iTunes and Spotify. Let us know your thoughts on Little Mix’s new album.

[Featured image by Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images]