Jade Amelia Thirlwall (born 26 December 1992) is an English singer and songwriter, who rose to fame in the 2010s as a member of the English girl group Little Mix. With the group, Thirlwall achieved nineteen top-ten singles, five number-ones, and six top-five studio albums on the UK Albums Chart, becoming the first girl group to achieve this milestone and the first girl group to spend a total of 100 weeks within the top 10 of the UK Singles Chart. In 2022, Thirlwall signed a recording contract with RCA Records, following the group’s hiatus.

In addition to her solo work, Thirlwall signed a songwriter’s publishing deal in 2019 with Sony/ATV Music, and shares songwriting credits for Little Mix, Twice, Billy Porter, Britney Spears, Iggy Azalea, and Nayeon. Aside from music and songwriting she is an ambassador for Stonewall, and noted for her political reviews and social activism, advocating for LGBTQ+ rights, ban against transgender conversion therapy in the UK, Black Lives Matter and her involvement with charity work which earned her the Gay Times Honour for Allyship in 2021.

Jade Amelia Thirlwall born on 26 December 1992 in South Shields, Tyne and Wear, England, to parents Norma Badwi and James Thirlwall. She has an older brother called Karl. She has Egyptian and Yemeni descent from her mother’s side and English descent from her father’s side. Thirlwall identifies as mixed-race, and is learning to connect more with her Arab-Egyptian-Yemeni heritage and its language in hopes of travelling more to the Middle East.

As a child she attended Muslim school to learn how to read and write in Arabic and attended church. During her teenage years she attended performing arts college at South Tyneside. In 1943, Thirlwall’s grandfather Mohammed Ahmed Saleh Badwi a devoted Muslim, emigrated to South Shields, from Yemen, and worked as a firefighter in the merchant navy, and as a laborer at the docks. He met his wife Amelia in South Shields. Thirlwall’s great-grandfather was from Egypt.

In 2008, at the age of 15, Thirlwall auditioned for The X Factor UK, singing “Where Do Broken Hearts Go” by Whitney Houston, but was eliminated at the boot- camp stage. She returned for a second time in 2010, but was unsuccessful. In 2011, at age 18, Thirlwall returned for the show’s eighth series and auditioned with “I Want to Hold Your Hand” by the Beatles, and advanced to bootcamp stage. After failing the first challenge she was placed into a group named “Orion” with Leigh-Anne Pinnock. Perrie Edwards and Jesy Nelson, both were in another group called “Faux Pas”. Both groups were later eliminated. Edwards, Thirlwall, Pinnock, and Nelson were called back by the judges and placed into another group originally known as Rhythmix. They progressed to the judges’ houses and reached the live shows where they was mentored by Tulisa Contostavlos.

On 28 October 2011, it was announced that the group name had changed to Little Mix, because of legal issues. On 11 December 2011, Little Mix was announced as the first group to win the series. They also became the first girl group to make it past week seven of the live shows, the first girl group to reach The X Factor final and the first and only girl group to win the show.

Thirlwall shares songwriting credits for more than 50 songs, across Little Mix’s six studio albums. She has co-written two UK number one singles with “Wings” in 2012 and “Shout Out to My Ex” in 2016. In 2019, she was recognised as an official songwriter after signing with Sony/ATV. Since Little Mix’s debut they have been cited for helping the girl band renaissance in the UK and for re-defining girl groups. They have gone onto become one of the best-selling girl groups and one of Britain’s biggest selling acts. In December 2021, the group announced they would be going on a hiatus, after The Confetti Tour in 2022 to allow its members to pursue solo projects.

On 1 March 2022, Thirlwall appeared on RuPaul’s Drag Race, special UK vs The World series. On 2 March 2022, she made her acting debut and a cameo appearance in the British musical television drama series Mood. In the same month, she signed a recording contract with RCA Records in the UK and USA and with Full Stop Management. In May 2022, in collaboration with Sink The Pink’s Manifesto for Misfits Book, Thirlwall wrote about her experiences with bullying, anorexia, and her identity issues because of her mixed race.

On 24 June, she co-wrote a track for Nayeon debut album “Im Nayeon”, marking the second time she had worked with the artist after she contributed to Twice album “Taste of Love” in 2021. Thirlwall won Cover of the Year at the PPA Awards in 2022, for her Gay Times Honours Special Issue for 2021. In August 2022, she took a break from the music industry, with plans to release solo music in 2023. In November 2022, she appeared on Heat magazine’s “UK and Ireland 30 under 30” rich list for the first time with an estimated net worth of £17.5 million.

Thirwall’s sound has been described as a combination of pop, R&B, and dance-pop with influences from other genres including tropical house, latin pop, and electronic music. She grew up listening to motown music, with her grandfather playing arabic music to her as a child. She cites Diana Ross as a music influence and has also expressed her love for Drag Culture, Drag Queens and is fan of RuPaul.