Jade Thirlwall was the last member of Little Mix to go solo, and 'Angel of My Dreams,' her 2024 debut single, spends its runtime being pointedly ambivalent about the industry that made her famous — it samples Sandie Shaw's 'Puppet on a String,' the UK's 1967 Eurovision winner, which is a specific and slightly cutting reference for a song about not fully trusting the machine you're part of.
The video traces her own path from busking outside South Shields supermarkets at 16 to X Factor to a decade in one of the biggest girl groups in the world.
It debuted at No. 7 on the UK Singles Chart and picked up a Brit Award nomination for Song of the Year. That's Showbiz Baby, her debut album, followed in September 2025 to strong reviews and a No. 3 UK Albums Chart entry — a genuinely successful solo launch for someone who spent a decade being one-fifth, then one-fourth, of a bigger act.