Little Mix opened up about being compared to Fifth Harmony in a new interview on Tuesday (May 12).
“I’d say at one point, we did,” Jesy Neslon told Buzzfeed about whether she and her bandmates felt a rivalry with their fellow girl group back in the 2010s. “What?! We can say that! We always loved them. We never didn’t like them as people.”
“There wasn’t a rivalry, as such, because we loved them all and we did like Fifth Harmony,” Perri Edwards quickly clarified. “But when they came up, we were like…oh no! Another girl band! That kind of vibe. I don’t think there was ever really a rivalry because they were so different. I think if they were doing the same stuff we were doing, and we were similar…I don’t know. But I feel like we never thought it was an actual rivalry.”
According to Jade Thrilwall, much of the perceived tension between the two girl groups stemmed from both being signed to Simon Cowell’s Syco Music following their origins on the U.K and U.S. iterations of The X Factor. “We never had a problem with the girls,” she said. “I think it was more just a bit awkward that we were on the same label.”
While Little Mix recently released the ’80s-influenced “Break Up Song” as the lead single off their forthcoming sixth studio album, Fifth Harmony went on indefinite hiatus in 2018. Normani, Lauren Jauregui, Ally Brooke and Dinah Jane have all followed in the footsteps of former member Camila Cabello — who exited the group in Dec. 2016 — by pursuing solo projects in the years since.
Check out Little Mix dishing on their relationship with Fifth Harmony below.