Leigh-Anne has high hopes for Little Mix debut single (From Bucks Free Press)

Leigh-Anne has high hopes for Little Mix debut single

7:40am Wednesday 29th August 2012 in News By Lawrence Dunhill

Leigh-Anne has high hopes for Little Mix debut single

WYCOMBE pop star Leigh-Anne Pinnock believes her band Little Mix will succeed where other X Factor winners have failed.

With the group’s debut single ‘Wings’ put on sale at the weekend and number one in the midweek chart you would expect the 20-year-old to be a bag of nerves.

Winning the X Factor by no means guarantees a route to superstardom - for every Leona Lewis there’s a Leon Jackson - but Leigh-Anne doesn’t seem worried about the possibility of joining the list of flops.

She told the Bucks Free Press: "We are the first girl band to win it and we are just going to work really hard and make sure that doesn’t happen.

"We are so determined, we want to go global. One Direction [who starred on the X Factor in 2010] are storming it and we could potentially do the same."

Since winning the show, Leigh-Anne has moved out of her mum’s home in Downley and is sharing a London flat with band-mate Jesy Nelson.

It’s the first time she has lived away from home, and despite Jesy getting locked out on Sunday they seem to be coping all right.

Leigh-Anne said: "It’s been amazing, it’s so weird because I understand what my mum goes through now with all the housework.... I’ve become really independent and I’m like a little housewife.

"But we’ve got this huge balcony so we’re thinking of having some parties. Me and the girls are literally like sisters now - we are together 24/7 but we don’t argue."

Last weekend marked the anniversary of the girls coming together as a group and Leigh-Anne says winning the X Factor still hasn’t sunk in.

The former Sir William Ramsay School pupil added: "I can’t believe a year’s gone past, it’s been crazy. I’m having the time of my life and potentially I could change my family’s life....It’s just the most amazing feeling.

"But I don’t feel like a celebrity. It’s amazing getting people coming up to me on the streets and for girls to say we are their inspiration."

Meanwhile, her Little Mix colleagues have all started dating high-profile boyfriends but Leigh-Anne doesn’t seem in any hurry.

She said she split with her long term boyfriend earlier in the year, adding: "It just didn’t really work. It wasn’t to do with my life with the X Factor it was personal issues.

"I’m just waiting for ‘The One’ but there’s no rush...I think I can handle it."

The band have scoffed at reports they are set to earn £8 million between them this year, but Leigh-Anne admits she has not held back when it comes to shopping.

She added: "I’ve got an endless supply of clothes and I’ve never shopped as much in my life - I literally spend, spend, spend.....I’m really bad I’ve got like, an addiction."

But amid the bumper shopping trips Leigh-Anne says there’s been some serious hard work - especially the media commitments that come with promoting the new release - such as getting up at 2.30am to go on ITV’s Daybreak.

‘Wings’, the band’s first proper single, was written by the girls with help from a production team and songwriter Iain James.

It has generally been well-received by pop critics, who are tipping the foursome to join the show’s success stories. An album is set to follow in the autumn.

Leigh-Anne said: "When we first released it we didn’t know what people were going to think. But we always knew we wanted the first single to be uplifting and it’s a bit different to what’s out there at the moment, and that’s the risk we wanted to take."

"For the album we worked with lots of different producers and we’ve written some of it ourselves. We wanted to make sure we’ve had as much input as possible.

"I’ve written a couple of raps and we’re just excited to show people what more we can do. It’s a mix of different styles because of our different influences, but it’s still pop and R‘n’B."

Leigh-Anne says she is set to return to High Wycombe in the coming months to help promote a new book by the band.