"Break Up Song" is a song by British girl group Little Mix. It was released by RCA UK on 27 March 2020 as the lead single off their sixth studio album, Confetti (2020).[2][3] Group members Jade Thirlwall, Leigh-Anne Pinnock and Perrie Edwards wrote the song with Frank Nobel, and producers Kamille and Goldfingers.[4][5] The song peaked at number nine on the UK Singles Chart and at number two on the Scottish Singles Chart, and reached the top 20 in Hungary, Ireland and Latvia. It was certified gold by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI).
Background
Little Mix members Perrie Edwards, Leigh-Anne Pinnock and Jade Thirlwall wrote "Break Up Song" with Frank Nobel, and producers Kamille and Goldfingers.[5] According to Thirlwall, they wrote the song more than a year prior to its release with 1980s pop music and an element of nostalgia in mind, similar to that of their 2015 single "Black Magic".[6][7] Edwards, Pinnock and Thirlwall composed it during a whirl of creativity where they wrote seven songs with Kamille in one day, after having only one melody from a frustrating previous session.[8][9] The track's 1980s sound stemmed from a synthesiser they dabbled with in the studio.[6]
A different song was initially chosen as their sixth album's lead single with an accompanying music video already filmed. However, the group opted for "Break Up Song" at the last minute after hearing the demo again during a playback session.[6] The demo had only one verse and main line. Edwards described it as "very basic at the time. The beat was all over the place and it was really, really rough - but it just had something about it."[8] Thirlwall recalled, "We got that jittery feeling that we had with "Shout Out to My Ex" and "Black Magic" where it just felt special."[6]
Composition
Thirlwall described the track as "a very feel-good kind of empowerment song about going out and just forgetting about all your woes and troubles".[2] It was also called an "80s-synth pop anthem" about "getting over the end of a relationship".[1]
Promotion
A Little Mix-themed filter on Instagram was made available to the group's followers to promote the track.[4] The song received a Spotifyvertical video and a lyric video, both released on 27 March 2020.[10][11] The latter was made by Kayleigh, a fan of the band from the Netherlands.[12] The official music video of the song was released on 8 May 2020 at 9am BST.[13]
Live performances
On 21 August 2020, Little Mix performed "Break Up Song" for the first time as part of the set list for their "Little Mix Uncancelled" concert.[14][15] The song was later performed on the eighteenth series of Strictly Come Dancing in December 2020,[16] with member Jesy Nelson absent from the performance.[17]