“What I’m going for is a relentless, huge pop punch to the face. I want people to be like ‘oh my god, I didn’t expect that’ – but then want to listen to it again.”
JADE, a.k.a. Jade Thirlwall of multi-platinum selling, BRIT Award winning pop phenomenon Little Mix, today releases her highly anticipated debut solo single, “Angel of My Dreams.”
JADE co-wrote ‘Angel of My Dreams’ in LA alongside Steph Jones (Sabrina Carpenter’s Espresso), Pablo Bowman (Calvin Harris’ Miracle) and producer Mike Sabath (RAYE). The track is a frenetically shapeshifting, gloriously OTT banger that explores her love/hate relationship with a pop industry she’s been at the heart of since 2011.
“I didn’t want to do a safe first single, that was really important to me,” JADE states. “I’m setting the tone of who I am as an artist on my own. I want people to hear it and be like ‘what the fuck is that song?’. My worst nightmare is for someone to hear my song and go ‘that’s nice’.”
The lyrical themes are brought to life via an eye-popping video that takes the song’s playful storytelling and blows it up into big neon letters. Directed by Aube Perrie (Harry Styles, Megan Thee Stallion), and filmed over four days (“the budget was budgeting” laughs JADE), it’s a visual feast, inspired by the Fifth Element, Showgirls and Black Swan, that stars various versions of Jade all scrapping for the spotlight.
“There’s 11 looks in the video! The concept is sort of rags to riches It was emotional actually because for one bit I’m busking and walking past a Sainsbury’s Local. When I was 16, I would stand outside my local Sainsbury’s and sing Christmas songs.”
It’s been a long, carefully chosen path to get to ‘Angel of My Dreams’. When Little Mix announced their hiatus in 2022, JADE started to set her solo career in motion across multiple studio sessions with collaborators including MNEK, Cirkut, Lostboy, RAYE, Lauren Aquilina and Dave Hamelin alongside Mike, Steph and Pablo. ‘Angel of My Dreams’ immediately jumped out as the lead single. Built around a cheeky, knowing sample of Sandie Shaw’s 1967 hit ‘Puppet on a String’, lyrically JADE wanted to reflect on her time in an industry that has brought her both unimaginable highs and deep lows.
“It’s about how obsessed I am with the industry – so there are lyrics like “love when you call me a star” – but also there’s the dark side that comes with that. It’s not as glam as it seems.” The sample, which JADE had wanted to use in a song for years, was chosen very specifically. “In the beginning of our career you do think you are this puppet, but at the same time it isn’t true – we wrote a lot of our songs, and we were behind a lot of what we put out there. I resented that as a statement. So it felt natural to take that and show that it can be true and untrue at the same time.”
The track is Jade delivering Big Pop Girl Energy. It is, as she says, doing the most; it’s OTT, it’s ridiculous and it’s gloriously WTF.
“This dawn of pop girls giving people everything is so exciting. It couldn’t be better timing for my music. I’m so proud of it and I can say that with chest. The fans have waited long enough so now we just want to give it to them“.