I have been watching The X Factor since the very first season, when a now faint whisper of a man called Steve Brookstein walked away with the title. I was watching when Leona Lewis brushed aside Whitney Houston hit after Whitney Houston hit, and I was watching last year when a few unlikely lads came together to form the beast known to us now as One Direction - and known to many 13-year-old girls as "ONE DIRECTION AAAAAGGGGGHHHHHH!" And yet, in all that time, I have never seen a girl group really cement themselves in the competition or in people's minds. The only girl groups I remember are Hope, Miss Frank and Belle Amie, and a group of Irish sisters who were so awful that even Simon Cowell (their mentor) chose to vote them off the show over another mentor's act. Until this year, the judge blessed with the groups has chosen one obligatory girl group just to make up the numbers, has over-styled them, over-choreographed them and underlooked the talent, personality and friendship required to make a successful girl group.
Tulisa was the only woman for the job. I was never an N-Dubz fan (truth be told, I wouldn't be able to tell you the title to a single one of their songs), but there is no denying the feat Tulisa has managed to pull off here. She went into this job wanting the groups, wanting the challenge and ready to create something out of nothing - and I feel that is exactly the attitude needed to make a miracle. There was virtually nothing when Tulisa was given the groups: a few talented individuals who had found themselves placed haphazardly in groups of mediocrity... and then there was Little Mix (or Rhythmix, as they were back then). They were unique from the start - quirky and unsure, and yet they instantly looked right together. They were, however, just another girl group, and girl groups never do well on The X Factor, so while I expected them to get through to the live shows, I didn't expect them to progress much beyond the first three shows.
But they grew together alarmingly quickly. Their friendship grew and they became believable; they were styled perfectly, with enough quirkiness to stand out and enough glamour to look like stars, and most importantly of all, they were marketed with just the attitude every single (until now, male) mentor has failed to realise: with Girl Power. You cannot put together a girl group without looking at what made its predecessors so successful, and whether that's vocal ability (Destiny's Child) or relatability (Spice Girls), Little Mix tick all the right boxes. But, for me, the biggest box of all is the one which has been so noticeably vacant in these last few years: the ability to make young girls feel good about themselves. When band member Jesy spoke out about her weight and image insecurities early into the live shows, whether she realised it or not (though I am sure the producers realised it), she was reaching out to thousands of young girls out there and saying, "I am human." You could believe it when she got up on stage last week and sang Christina Aguilera's Beautiful, and you could believe her bandmates as they stood beside her and sang it with her.
I am tired of seeing the charts dominated by overly-airbrushed women who feel the only way to land a number one hit is to strip down and do some obligatory gyrating; I am tired of it being true that the only way to land a number one hit (unless you're Adele) is to strip down and shake your jelly. The fact that Little Mix have defied the odds and become the first girl group ever to make it into the final speaks volumes to me: girls are ready for change, and I am ready to support this change.
Little Mix has the X Factor!
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