Jesy Nelson

It won Factual Entertainment Award at the 25th National Television Awards and also a Visionary Honour Award for Documentary of the Year.

Both her private and personal life has received media attention in the UK, including her departure from Little Mix.

In October 2021, she released her debut single "Boyz", featuring rapper Nicki Minaj, which received negative reviews but debuted at number four on the UK Singles Chart.

In April 2023, she released her follow-up single "Bad Thing".

The documentary won the Factual Entertainment Award at the 25th National Television Awards.

Jessica Louise Nelson (born 14 June 1991) is an English singer.

Jessica Louise Nelson was born in Romford, East London, on 14 June 1991, to John Nelson, a businessman, and Janis Nelson, a police community support officer.

Her parents separated when she was five.

She is the second youngest of four children with an older sister Jade, an older brother Jonathan and a younger brother Joseph.

Nelson attended Jo Richardson Community School and Abbs Cross Academy and Arts College in Hornchurch, London.

She also attended the Sylvia Young and Yvonne Rhodes Theatre Schools.

Prior to auditioning for The X Factor, Nelson worked as a barmaid in Dagenham.

She rose to prominence as a member of the girl group Little Mix, who took part on the eighth series of The X Factor in 2011.

As part of Little Mix, Nelson achieved nineteen top-ten singles and five number-ones on the UK Singles Chart.

On 28 October 2011, it was announced that the band's new name would be Little Mix.

On 11 December 2011, Little Mix were announced as the winners, making them the first band ever to win the British version of the show.

After winning the show, Little Mix signed a record deal with Syco Music, owned by Simon Cowell.

Since joining Little Mix, Nelson has faced cyber-bullying and struggled to cope during her time on The X Factor.

Nelson released six albums with the group; DNA (2012), Salute (2013), Get Weird (2015), Glory Days (2016), LM5 (2018) and Confetti (2020) The last of which was released a month before she left the group.

In 2019, Nelson released her documentary titled Jesy Nelson: Odd One Out, which was focused around her struggles with body image, mental health and online bullying.

Nelson released her documentary on BBC Three in 2019, titled Jesy Nelson: Odd One Out. The documentary was based on her experiences with body image and online bullying.

It was BBC Three's top factual title since the channel moved online and on BBC One it was watched by 3.3 million viewers.

In 2020, Nelson said that, as a child, she had non speaking roles as an extra in About a Boy (2002) and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005).

Her first audition was "Bust Your Windows" by Jazmine Sullivan, and successfully auditioned as a soloist for the eighth series of the UK version of The X Factor in front of judges Louis Walsh, Gary Barlow, Tulisa Contostavlos and Kelly Rowland, but failed the first challenge of the "bootcamp" section to progress through to the Girls category (solo females aged 16–24).

Nelson and Perrie Edwards were put in a group called "Faux Pas" while Jade Thirlwall and Leigh-Anne Pinnock were to be put in a group named "Orion".

Both groups, however, failed to progress.

A later decision by the judges recalled two members from each group to form the four-piece group Rhythmix, sending them through to the "judges' houses" section.

They eventually reached the live shows and were mentored by Tulisa Contostavlos.

In December 2020, she announced her departure from the group due to prolonged issues with her mental health.

She said: "I find the constant pressure of being in a girl group and living up to expectations very hard."

In May 2021, Nelson announced that she had signed a record deal with Polydor Records and that she would be releasing solo music later that year.

On 8 October 2021, Nelson released her debut solo single, titled "Boyz", which included a feature by US rapper Nicki Minaj.

The single, which was an interpolation of "Bad Boy for Life" and the music video featured a cameo of the original singer Diddy, was met with a mixed reception and peaked at number 4 on the UK Singles Chart.

On 29 July 2022, it was announced that Nelson had split from Polydor Records, amid "creative differences" fourteen months after signing with them.

On 3 April 2023, following a clearance of her social media, Nelson announced her new single "Bad Thing" which was released on 14 April 2023.

Upon its release, Nelson attracted praise from the charity Women's Aid due to the song's themes of domestic abuse.

On 17 April 2023, the Official Charts Company published their midweek chart predictions; they placed "Bad Thing" at number 98.

"Bad Thing" did not end up charting on the UK Top 100, but instead peaked at number 15 on the UK Official Singles Downloads Chart on 21 April 2023.

Nelson has said that being bullied at school may have contributed to her suffering from stress-induced alopecia as a teenager.

In her BBC documentary Odd One Out, Nelson was vocal about her struggle with body image.