Has Jade Thirlwall broken the curse of the girl group?

Going solo after a girl group is a bit of a poisoned chalice: ex-members are expected to cement themselves as the breakout star or risk finding themselves endlessly compared to their bandmates and the sound they’re already known for. The bar is set high.

For the uninitiated, Jade Thirlwall was one quarter of Little Mix, who were the first group, instead of solo act, to win The X Factor in 2011, when they were just 18. Over the next decade, they became the biggest British girl group since the Spice Girls: they had five UK No 1s, 19 top 10 singles, won multiple Brit awards, and were the first girl group to spend more than 100 weeks in the UK charts.

Thirlwall – now going by Jade – released her debut album That’s Showbiz Baby on 12 September, which landed at number three in the UK charts. Is this proof she might just be dodging the curse of the girl group? All three of her band mates have gone on to launch solo careers, with varying receptions. While fans expected Perrie Edwards to be the star, Jade has attracted the most notice. And she hasn't done so by distancing herself from the band, or giving herself a safe and generic rebrand – quite the opposite.

Jade has leaned into theatre, chaos and camp. Her debut single, Angel of My Dreams, is a ravey, unhinged exploration of the euphoric highs and industry hellscapes she's lived through during her formative years. It samples Sandie Shaw’s Puppet on a String and repurposes it as commentary on branding and control. “Sold my soul to a psycho,” she sings, a line that doesn't require too much decoding (cough Simon Cowell cough).

Having split from the group in her late 20s, Jade has described turning 30 as a moment of rebirth: “I suddenly stopped caring so much.” After three years spent refining her craft, she's returned with something bold and rather eclectic. She’s become the first former member of Little Mix to land a top 10 hit that remained in place for two weeks. She’s already won a Brit, and her debut album has received positive reviews across the board. She also supported Chappell Roan on tour, proving there's space (and appetite) for both weird women (because, aren’t we all?!).

Her Polyester magazine cover earlier this year – she guest edited the issue and gave an interview in which she said she was “quite passionate about the government’s complicity in selling arms to Saudi Arabia” – made clear that Jade is not interested in being palatable or apolitical. That refusal is helping her reach audiences beyond the original Little Mix fanbase. We’re no longer in an era that celebrates Barbie-like, good girl perfection. We’ve seen too much, read the memoirs, watched the harrowing post-fame documentaries. We know (at least in part) what the industry demands from women and how it imposes itself on them. And frankly, in a world that feels increasingly volatile, we’re craving music, literature and art that reflect that reality.

In an interview with the New York Times, Jade said: “The ethos of Little Mix was more of a universal concept, a lot of our songs had to speak to so many people. It’s what you need from a girl band, right? The whole point is togetherness and solidarity and sisterhood.” Her new album signals a renewed sense of freedom, owning the mess and exploring possibility of what might come next.

Jade was responsible for curating her new team (a totally different process from how Little Mix was manufactured) and has full creative control: her new deal includes a wellness fund so she can access therapeutic support. She’s not alone in demanding more for herself: Taylor Swift fought for her masters and creative autonomy; the British pop star Raye has described how she battled to leave her label so she could release the music she was prevented from for making so long – and is now soaring.

Women in music are taking back power. So, has Jade has broken the girl group curse? It depends on what the markers of success are. If it’s pushing back against the machine, building something new, strange and brilliant, then the answer is most definitely yes.

Photograph by Thomas Jackson /Alamy