Little Mix Refuse To Recreate Iconic Spice Girls Brits Moment

In spite of Jack Whitehall’s goading, Little Mix didn’t want to have a pop at Piers Morgan and Simon Cowell…

Samir Hussein / Contributor

by Sophie Wilkinson |
Updated on

Little Mix have learned, like every girlband before them, that wherever girlbands exist, so too do grumpy, critical blokes who aren’t even the target market for their music but insist on slamming it anyway. However, at this year’s Brit awards, Little Mix refused to take up Jack Whitehall’s offer to vent at Piers Morgan, and their ex-boss Simon Cowell.

In a lengthy skit, Jack - who had become progressively more arch as the night went on, poking fun at everyone from Sir Philip Green to his pal Ed Sheeran, taking in his own predilection for prostate massage and all the gross dads who watched at home unable to hide their enjoyment of Little Mix’s show - wanted Little Mix to say something mean.

After saying that he wouldn’t be bringing up Jesy Nelson’s Jamaican accent ‘and ting’, Jack said: ‘Real talk, can we bring up exes. When you left Simon Cowell, it raised a few eyebrows. Not his - obviously - he's lost that movement in his eyebrows.’

The pink-clad performers, who won the award for British Video of the year, fell about laughing, and Jesy insisted ‘We are still pals.’ Frustrated with the lack of ‘beef’, Jack then brought up Good Morning Britain presenter Piers Morgan.

The band have previously faced criticism from him because he seems to think that women who want equality are hypocrites for using sex to sell records, even if they’ll probably be sexualised regardless of what they do, so what’s the harm in having control of it while they're at it?

Jack put it to Leigh-Anne Pinnock, Jade Thirlwall, Perrie Edwards and Jesy this way: ‘Piers didn't like that picture where you stripped off naked, which is weird because voluptuous breasts and four chins is like looking in the mirror for him. What would you say to that dutty wasteman?’

The girls were pretty alarmed, laughing in a sort of incredulous way. Yes, this means, Little Mix missed their chance to recreate that iconic Brits moment when the Spice Girls’ Mel C told Oasis’s Liam Gallagher ‘come and have a go if you think you’re hard enough’ from the winners’ podium in 1997.

It’s hardly Little Mix’s loss though. In the old days, if Liam Gallagher said something nasty about the Spice Girls to the press, it’d be the next day’s fish and chip paper, because yes, before health and safety rules were brought in to explain to us all that eating ink is bad for you no matter how much salt and vinegar you pickle it with, people would eat fish and chips off of day-old newspapers. Newspapers like the ones Piers Morgan used to edit. Which is a long way round of saying that that is how old the man with a pretty unfathomable and nasty interest in the 20-somethings of Little Mix is.

With today’s media landscape having changed enough for Mel C and Liam Gallagher to now be mates and for social media to allow one tweet from Piers Morgan to lead to weeks of the women in Little Mix receiving stick from his followers, they clearly knew it was best to take a dignified silence.

Of course, that hasn’t stopped Morgan from complaining that he has been ‘fat-shamed’ on television by Jack, and that Little Mix, by laughing along (in-between covering their faces and saying 'no!'), also fat-shamed him. Never mind that society accommodates men Piers’s size far better than it accommodates women of any size, eh?

We can't be bothered to share his tweet here, so here's Little Mix's performance instead:

Gallery

Brits 2019 red carpet - Grazia slider

Brit Awards 2019  - Vick Hope1 of 20

Brit Awards 2019 - Vick Hope

Brit Awards 2019 - Jess Glynne2 of 20

Brit Awards 2019 - Jess Glynne

Brit Awards 2019 - Maya Jama3 of 20

Brit Awards 2019 - Maya Jama

Brit Awards 2019 - Florence Welch4 of 20

Brit Awards 2019 - Florence Welch

Brit Awards 2019  - Ashley Roberts5 of 20

Brit Awards 2019 - Ashley Roberts

Brit Awards 2019 - Chidera Eggerue6 of 20

Brit Awards 2019 - Chidera Eggerue

Brit Awards 2019 - Dua Lipa7 of 20

Brit Awards 2019 - Dua Lipa

Brit Awards 2019 - Lily Allen8 of 20

Brit Awards 2019 - Lily Allen

Brit Awards 2019 - Paloma Faith9 of 20

Brit Awards 2019 - Paloma Faith

Brit Awards 2019 - Jorja Smith10 of 20

Brit Awards 2019 - Jorja Smith

Brit Awards 2019 - Anne-Marie11 of 20

Brit Awards 2019 - Anne-Marie

Brit Awards 2019 - Freya Ridings12 of 20

Brit Awards 2019 - Freya Ridings

Brit Awards 2019 - Pink13 of 20

Brit Awards 2019 - Pink

Brit Awards 2019 - Lilah Parsons14 of 20

Brit Awards 2019 - Lilah Parsons

Brit Awards 2019 - Johanna Soderberg and Klara Soderberg15 of 20

Brit Awards 2019 - Johanna Soderberg and Klara Soderberg

Brit Awards 2019 - Neelam Gill16 of 20

Brit Awards 2019 - Neelam Gill

Brit Awards 2019 - Annie Mac17 of 20

Brit Awards 2019 - Annie Mac

Brit Awards 2019 - Vicky McClure18 of 20

Brit Awards 2019 - Vicky McClure

Brit Awards 2019 - Jo Whiley19 of 20

Brit Awards 2019 - Jo Whiley

Brit Awards 2019 - Alice Levine20 of 20

Brit Awards 2019 - Alice Levine

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