It’s cold outside, so Leigh-Anne Pinnock and I are comparing escape routes. It’s the day after her Who What Wear UK cover shoot, and she’s sitting, legs crossed, on the carpet of her walk-in wardrobe. We share travel tips on the respective Caribbean islands our fathers hail from, and I can practically feel the sunshine on my skin. “I’m making plans. I’d love to go to Grenada,” she nods. “But growing up, it had to be Jamaica every year for our holidays to visit my dad’s side of the family.” She gets a dreamy look in her eyes as she recalls summers spent eating ackee, green banana and mangoes picked straight from the trees in her grandparents’ back garden. “It’s just so beautiful and vibey there. There’s always music playing and a plate of food that feels good for the soul. I have really happy memories of being in Jamaica and listening to the lovers rock CDs my cousins would burn for me.”
And it’s in no way surprising that some of Pinnock’s formative memories revolve around music. From the moment she stepped into The X Factor spotlight at 19 through to her world-conquering years as a member of Little Mix, it’s clear that Pinnock has been intentional about keeping her heritage close. “Bringing Blackness to pop stages has always been important to me. Even experimenting with my hair is something I’ve always fought for,” she says. As I take in her off-duty look, with loose waves draped across her shoulders, I’m reminded of the sculptural braids and Louvre-worthy baby hairs she wore just the day before. “It’s so funny, the other day a fan said I should stick to a signature hairstyle so I’m more recognisable, and I was like, ‘Babe, I’m a Black woman. That is not going to happen.’”
Now 34, raising twin girls with her footballer husband Andre Gray, and gearing up to release her debut solo album My Ego Told Me To next month, Pinnock is far more interested in authenticity than other people’s opinions. The album’s reggae-inflected beats and dancehall attitude are clearly rooted in the sound of her childhood summers, and she’s never seemed more at home. “The looks [from the shoot] are very clean, very cool and very me. I am in quite a fierce era,” she says. Pinnock is warm and easy to spend time with, but there’s definitely a fire in her, stoked by a music industry she’s felt pigeonholed by for far too long.
“With everything I’ve experienced in this industry, and the toxicity I recently felt at my previous label, where I was trying to make a solo album and being told who I should be, I wanted to revive the Leigh-Anne who would stand up for herself,” she says. “When I was young, I knew exactly who I was. I would walk into a room, and no one could tell me anything; I had all the confidence that I would be a star. It’s interesting that when I actually got my dream, that started to trickle away.”
And it would be fair to say the “dream come true” moment that Pinnock speaks of refers to her Little Mix years. She genuinely lights up when she talks about her fellow bandmates, who went on hiatus in 2022 with five number-one singles, three BRIT Awards and millions of loyal fans under their belts. But spending her twenties in the world’s biggest girl group came with its challenges.
“When we first formed, social media was just coming around, and that was a shock to the system. I would sit and search ‘Black girl in Little Mix’, looking through all the hate.” I can’t help dropping my face into my hands at the thought of what that did to her. “I know, I know!” she wails. “It was so damaging, and it all comes from wanting validation. It’s annoyingly something I still battle with. Being in a girl group comes with so much comparison; you want to make sure you’re showing who you are and getting enough lines to sing and that you’re somebody’s favourite. I’m just grateful I was navigating it with amazing girls; we really had each other’s backs.”
But now, it’s time for Pinnock to do things solo, on her own terms, for the first time. From the take-no-prisoners power of “Dead and Gone” to the finger-snapping riot that is “Most Wanted”, every track on Leigh-Anne’s upcoming album speaks to the woman she’s become thanks to the self-belief of the girl she once was. But she’s quick to remind me that as a teenager, she didn’t have it all figured out, and that a lot of her confidence was a protective forcefield.
“I struggled with acne, and that gave me a bit of a complex relationship with my skin, which came with some shame. We have so much amazing skincare now, but back then all I knew was Clearasil and squeezing my spots,” she says, shaking her head. “I ended up trying Roaccutane, which I know is not for everyone, but it really worked for me.” Now, she explains she’s passionate about being kind to her skin from the inside out. “Recently, I’ve got into drinking cacao and mushroom-blend tea every night, which is specifically for skin, hair and nail health, and I’ve seen such a difference.”
But solidifying her self-image has been a lifelong journey; one that started where mine and so many others’ did, too: with a Dream Matte Mousse foundation that was completely the wrong shade. We laugh at the looks we tried to pull off with the limited beauty shelves of the late nineties and early noughties, from blue eye shadow to curls soaked to within an inch of their life in Luster’s Pink Oil Moisturiser—one of the very few Black hair products you could get in the UK back then. (“The smell!”, we both squeal at the same time.) Since then, she has spent years sitting in glam chairs, so what nuggets of beauty wisdom has she held onto? “I’ve been introduced to the power of a good eyebrow serum, because I’ve got really bushy brows that need a bit of hold,” she says. “I also swear by Jamaican castor oil for hair growth. When I’m having a dirty hair day, I just put it on, put my hair in a bun, go to bed and then wash it out the next morning.”
As she rehearses for her UK and Europe-wide tour in April, Pinnock tells me just how happy she is to be back where she belongs. “The stage is my home, so getting up there with all eyes on me and being able to tell my story feels so amazing,” she says. I mention how fun it’s been to see her own a fresh, grown-woman energy in the solo performances she’s given so far. “Obviously, when I was in the group, the way we were marketed was about appealing to everybody, including young children. It was a conscious decision not to be too sexy,” she says. “But I mean, I’m a 34-year-old woman now. We all have sex… I’ve got twins,” she laughs. “And I think it is an empowering thing to be sensual. It’s something I’ve enjoyed tapping into on this album and will continue to do going forward, even if some people come with their ‘But you’re a mother now!’ nonsense.” She rolls her eyes so hard her whole head moves with them.
There is such a certainty to Pinnock’s vision this year, and I get the sense that she feels in control for the first time in a long time. As our conversation draws to a close, I put one final question to her: when does she feel at her most powerful? “When I am in the creative process, building this world of music and dance and visuals that express who I am, and knowing it all flows from me,” she says without missing a beat. “But I also feel powerful when I’m with my family and my children, in a more grounding way.” She looks off into the distance, searching for the right words. “I think what I’ve realised is that I associate power with happiness now. When you feel like it’s been taken away from you, reclaiming power [is] the best kind of freedom.”
Photographer: Fabien Montique
Stylist: Sophie Watson
Hair Stylist: Ross Kwan at A-Frame
Makeup Artist: Hila Karmand at Arch
Manicurist: Stephanie Staunton using Magpie, Shiseido and Dadi'Oil
Managing Director: Hannah Almassi
Editor-in-Chief: Jane McFarland
Art Director: Natalia Szytk
Executive Director, Entertainment: Jessica Baker
Beauty Director: Shannon Lawlor
Video Editor: Natasha Wilson
Photography Assistant: Guillaume Mercier, Benji Meredith-Hardy
Digital Technician: Aljaz Habjan
Hair Assistant: Kitty Katana
Makeup Assistant: Cassandra Scalia
Production: Town Productions