She was one quarter of one of the world's biggest girl bands for over a decade and now, as a solo artist, her first two singles have definitely made people sit up and take notice.
Little Mix star Leigh-Anne Pinnock has had an incredible few years and it seems everything she touches - music, fashion, acting, documentary-making and advocacy work - turns to gold.
Since 2020, she's had several major high-profile fashion collaborations and launched a TV production company.
Her 2021 TV documentary, Leigh-Anne: Race, Pop & Power, gained widespread acclaim for exploring the topic of racism, with a focus on the discrimination she faced in the music industry - something she said she is still "trying to heal" from.
In the same year, she starred in her first film (Boxing Day, the first mainstream UK romantic comedy film with a mainly black cast) and launched a charity called The Black Fund, which supports charities and groups who deliver support to black communities in the UK.
A massive solo record deal with Warner Music followed - the same label that represents Ed Sheeran, Dua Lipa, Bruno Mars and Saweetie.
2023 saw her penning a memoir that is due out later this month, receiving an honourary doctorate from Buckinghamshire New University (awarded by her long-term friend and mentor, The Repair Shop's Jay Blades), gracing the cover of British Vogue in June, and launching her first two solo singles.
And in the middle of all that? She gave birth to twins, while her husband, professional footballer Andre Gray, made a massive move only weeks ago to join Saudi Arabian club Al Riyadh.
There’s an air of superwoman about the 32-year-old, whose stock is at an all-time high - but yet she says releasing her first two tracks into the world was "petrifying".
Speaking to me via video call from a chair in her (as you'd expect, spacious) walk-in wardrobe, she says, "I was kind of petrified to be honest. But the reaction has been incredible to both. I can't wait to produce this body of work and tour, and allow my songs to come to life on stage - like that's why I'm doing this. I wanna perform, so I'm excited for that."
The two tracks are a huge departure from the Little Mix sound, and much more heavily lean into R'n'B and Afrobeats. "It's music that I either loved going up or I love now. I wasn't really able to do that in the group. You know, I love R&B, I love reggae, I love Afrobeats, and I love black music."
"For me, it's about incorporating those genres and putting my 'Leigh-Anne' stamp on them."
She elaborates: "Coming from such a massive group and such a massive machine…we had our pop, anthemic, incredible sound. [This is] moving away from that and offering something different and offering me - maybe what I couldn't have shown in the group."
The stunning and colourful video for her sophomore track My Love (which features Nigerian singer Arya Starr) is something Pinnock beams about when asked.
"[Starr] was the only person that I just knew had to be on this song. And obviously, she's Nigerian and the video just had to be there - it couldn't have been anywhere else.
"We shot it in Lagos and the director is Meji Alabi and he is probably one of the best directors I've ever worked with… the way that he captured Lagos and its people, and my dancers, like it was just phenomenal. I'm so proud of it. Yeah, it's a beautiful video."
It was just before the end of 2021 that the then Little Mix trio of Pinnock, Perrie Edwards and Jade Thirlwall announced they would be going on hiatus following the completion of their 2022 Confetti Tour, after selling over 60 million records worldwide and amassing over fifteen billion streams since they became the first and only group to win The X Factor in 2011.
The other original band member, Jesy Nelson, left the group two years prior, citing mental health issues. Nelson said in an interview earlier this year that she and her former bandmates have not been in touch since she departed the group.
But it seemed that Pinnock in general had lots to say and wasted no time in making her own music. Not long after going on hiatus, she took part in a songwriting camp in Jamaica, where she really felt she was ready to get solo material out there: "The music came quicker than expected - I just kind of felt ready."
After a decade of decisions made by consensus, Pinnock says she found that being able to call the shots "took some getting used to" and a "weird transition".
Exhaling, perhaps with some relief, she says, "All of a sudden, I can just release whatever I want. And like, I don't have to have this pressure on me – I can just like release good music that means something to me and tells my story and shows a part of who I am. It’s such an amazing feeling."
Another amazing feeling in her life comes from her two-year-old twins, or as she describes them, her "cherubs" and "obviously the biggest blessing in my life." She has never publicly revealed their names or gender and is noticeably cautious when speaking about them.
When asked if motherhood is something she’s going to talk about on her upcoming album, she responds, "How could I not? I think about them all the time and of course, I'm writing about them. There’s a beautiful song on the album about them and many more to come."
Pinnock agrees when I suggest that motherhood, and parenthood in general, is perhaps neglected by music acts as a topic worth exploring. "Yeah, it's so true. And I think as well, I've got a couple of songs on the album, not just about the 'how it's the biggest blessing of my life’, but the hardships as well.
"I don't feel like it is spoken about enough. So yeah, I wanted to show, like, just be real with it - it's hard."
She has also hinted of late that the album will also bring revelations of hardships of her relationships with her husband, telling Vogue in June that "Everything on Instagram looks perfect and nothing is."
When I asked how long she "allowed" herself for maternity leave and how she navigated the transition back to work, she says: "Motherhood has been the wildest journey I've ever been on - just absolutely wild."
"I listened to my body to an extent but I think I went back to work probably quite soon, but I'm just like that - I can't really sit down for long like I have to go in and work."
"And we [she and fellow then-pregnant Little Mixer Perrie Edwards] worked [when] we were heavily pregnant - it was mad.
"I feel like we worked really late on. And then just kind of started early back to work as well.
"But yeah, I don't know, man. It's just something in me. I just gotta keep going."
A release date for her debut solo album has not yet been confirmed but she says it’s "definitely shaping up", after recording sessions in "London, Jamaica, LA, and some in Vegas".
"I really want to put some extra special time and attention to making this perfect and really making this something that I'm proud of. It has to be right, you know? It has to be great."
Does she play her music to her band colleagues? "I was nervous when I first played my singles to Jade. I was really nervous, especially [when] it’s not in the final stage and it's just a rough demo and I'm like, 'Oh, that's gonna be better, that it's not gonna be like that.'"
But, "She gets it. She was really impressed... I think it's amazing the fact that we can all support each other. If they win, I win. If I win, they win. You know, we're still weirdly together, in a weird way."
And has she heard the tunes they’re working on? No, and she’s "fuming" about it.
"We're so busy. I'm been trying to go to dinner with Jade for like weeks and we just can't get a date that we can both do. It's mad, but I think I'm seeing her this week, so I'm gonna be like, 'Go play me your stuff. Come on!'"
Only hours after I spoke with Pinnock, she won best musician at the star-studded Glamour Magazine Women Of The Year Awards, racking up another coveted award to her growing collection of prizes for music and activism.
One of the first lyrics in My Love is, "This woman knows how to make the world go round" - and after my brief time spent in the company of Pinnock, it’s clear she practices what she preaches.
Don’t Say Love and My Love are out now on the Warner Records label.
