The Disastrous Debut of Jesy Nelson

Jesy Nelson and her bad ‘Boyz’ drama. Will it permanently stain her solo career ?

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[honestboy]

Also to clarify because some people are cherry-picking. I did not say Little Mix *is* better or even as iconic as TLC, DC, or SG. I simply said they (arguably) operated as an equilibrium better than them. Meaning all of the girls got their moments to shine. Beyonce is known as the “Beyonce” of the group. TLC’s relationship became strained during Fanmail which led to Lisa barely being on the album. (Also Tboz is the lead singer) . Victoria didn’t have many solo parts in SG. Despite, the 2 latter groups’ chemistry. Little Mix didn’t really have this kind of set up. They all eventually got their moments to shine. They were a bit more committed to the “sisterhood” brand …until they weren’t.

[sebastianbecerra]

Jesy had potential, however her song boyz, the blackfishing scandal, and the Jingle Bell Ball performance really ruined her debut and probably her solo career. I also think Nicki Minaj dragging the other members of Little Mix really didn't help in her favor.

Edit: I also want to point out something that I missed, and I noticed this with some artists like Normani. And that problem is consistency. Jesy hasn't released any new solo material or been featured in anyone else's work since her single Boyz. I fear that if she doesn't release any new music soon, there might be a chance she'll never come-back from this setback.

[scottieypuesx]

hear me out, I honestly think she was not mentally ready for a solo career, she got bullied for years cause of her looks and she thought that going for that insta baddie diva image would help her, wrong!!! she wanted to show the public that she's capable of something she's not, it doesn't feel genuine, like her mom said in her documentary; "I want the real jest back" and as a mixer since 2013 I get what her mom meant, this current Jesy doesn't even feel like a human, it feels like a character she built, she wants to sell a diva wannabe look that just won't work! she said "I can now do the things I wanna do and create the type of music that I really like" but the problem is, it seems like she doesn't even now who she is, she should have waited at least to year, delete her social media and focus on her mental health before trying to be a solo artist.

[danielacordero]

She just strikes me as a very insecure person, even more so now, which makes me sad. It seems like under all this newfound "confidence" it's the same underlying issues. I feel bad that the media was so cruel to her.

[cyndixx]

The fact that she said that Leigh Anne ( a black woman who was left out multiple times because of the color of her skin) had it easier than her. The fact that she’s even comparing their struggles is a red flag, she said that they were her “sisters” only for her to be contradictory and act like they were the problem this entire time.

[maloneaqua]

Honestly I think Leigh Anne was the odd one out, always sidelined and given the least material to sing and had the least love from the fans on social.
Jesy had the biggest social following next to Perrie. Yes the PRESS was cruel to her, but the fandom loved her and so did the other band members.

[heresqueenie]

The fact that Jesy says no one supported or cared about her is crazy. The last few years when her mental health was bad, her band mates more often times Leigh Anne of all people took over her parts. She even admitted in several interviews to being jealous of them at times. No one is perfect I'm sure in a group there are times when people get on your nerves but she also talked about her ideas and songs getting dubbed but each member said as a group each one of them experienced that. Let's also talk about the fact that in both their sides of the story they all agreed they tried to get her to stay and went to therapy to try to work things out. I find it hard to believe they didn't care about her at all.

[irises]

She hates bullying but was willing to laugh along to bullying of her former bandmate

[elisedelaserre]

I think this might be a cute song for a 20 year old singer but woman in her 30s singing about bad boys and “my mama won’t like you” is kinda cringe to me 🤷‍♀️

[howtodisappear]

jesy used to be soo good in little mix, but always felt 'apart' from the group. her solo debut had so much potential.

[sunflowerbabe]

The live was extremely unnecessary and really disrespectful it really made me see jesy differently after how much she struggled with bullying she had no problem sitting on live letting Nicki attack Leigh like it’s nothing is just really fucked up especially since Leigh had just given birth to twins around the time

[eumrtn]

the explanation she gave for leaving the group basically said that she wanted time away from the spotlight, not that she wanted to be a solo artist. so when all of a sudden she released solo music she lost all the fans she had from little mix bc she had lied to them and betrayed the group in their eyes. and that was before all the scandals

[kaitlincornell]

Jesy has a good voice, one of my favorites but her black-fishing scandal, her song boyz, and then everything that Nicki Minaj did ruined her future. There was drama in the group because She said no one told her about black-fishing and I think Leigh-Anne's sister called her out for that lie. It was bad. Leigh-Anne went through hate because of her skin color, while the girls were there for Jesys documentary, Jesy did't show support for her at all. I honestly don't know about her future but whatever happens happens I guess.

[nina__serafina]

I think it's interesting when you compared Jesy's solo outing compared to someone like Camila or Zayn in terms of the music. Zayn leaned more into R&B with pillowtalk and Camila had more of a Latin Pop sound with Havana (I know that's not her debut single but I'm too lazy to look it up right now). Compared those to Boys by Jesy it seems...generic in comparison. Like it sounds like something you would hear if a youtuber needed a royalty free pop song for a video.

[mikahlameman]

most of us mixers would've still been supporting her if she'd stop black fishing and let's not forget, she stood by while the only black member Leigh-Anne got so much hate for being black and didn't speak out. She's white and a lot of mixers thought she was at least part black

[ashantiw-a]

You didn't touch on that Leigh-Anne was really supportive of & featured in the mental health documentary that Jesy made. Leigh-Anne made her own documentary on racism in the pop industry & Jesy didn't give it any support, wasn't in it & when asked about if she talked to Leigh-Anne about their shared (yet different) struggles said no because Leigh-Anne was better at handling it (racism). So when Jesy was sat there laughing at Minaj's horrible comments, it left a bad taste in everyone's mouth in the UK. Because of the hypocrisy after the strong impact Jesy's documentary on bullying had in the UK. Leading to people on TikTok unearthing Jesy's lack of support for Leigh-Anne documentary and numerous clips going viral of Jesy being rude or unkind to Leigh-Anne while in Little Mix. And then shortly after this Jesy gave a really bad performance at the Jingle Ball in Christmas.

Not to mention people in the UK were clowning that Jesy wrote a song about 'Bad Boys' while approaching 30, having dated famously not gangsta men, & redoing Diddys gentrification theme from his original song as a white women from Essex.

It's hard to quantify just how much she was being clowned in the UK and burned her public from being the face of anti-bullying & body positivity to being seen as a bully. Its doubtful she'll be able to turn that around & the UK was where her fan base was strongest, Little Mix never managed to have a massive hold in the US.

[WakelessLon]

The one right thing she did was get an icon like Nicki for her solo debut, however it didn’t help her at all, and hurt Nicki’s image even more based on that IG live they had.

[CaribbeanCitizen]

To me Boyz was a big mistake as an opening single, because Jesy had already been getting backlash from blackfishing and this song sort of contributed to those allegationsand made them worse. Boyz has so many lyrics that sound like fetishizing of black men, and the video is mostly fine but a bit on the pushing it side with regards to cultural appropriation and mixed with her own blackfishing it was going to be a disaster. After all of that, letting Nicki drag her former band mate, Leigh-Anne who had just released her own documentary about experiencing racism in the industry, just made the whole thing spiral. In my opinion, even without acknowledging the blackfishing stuff a different debut single would have been much better for her career

[joey]

She's the liam payne of LITTLE MIX

[unknownuser]

Her looking racially ambiguous and ignoring fan's concerns was and is the biggest issue for me. We don't know for sure what happend between her and little mix, but I remember her liking Perries pregnancy post, but not Leigh's. I'm sure they fell out. Nicki should've never inserted herself into this, because she made everything worse.
At least Jesy only said nice things about her time in little mix. I wish you included the fact that Leigh, Perrie and Jade all unfollowed her right when Boyz dropped and that they made a song about cutting Jesy off. I feel like all involved parties were quite shady, and I wish Little Mix's legacy didnt end like this