Simon Cowell reveals why he parted ways with Little Mix

Music mogul Simon Cowell has spoken out after Little Mix parted ways with his label Syco.

The girl group, who rose to fame after appearing on Cowell’s reality singing competition X Factor, were taken off the label’s roster just days before the release of their new album LM5.

The split occurred when Little Mix’s management team, Modest, and Syco Music, announced they would no longer be working together.

“Syco Music will no longer work with Modest Management and therefore any acts signed to that management company,” a spokesperson said. “We do of course, wish all artists affected by this decision every future success. Consequently, LM5, the forthcoming Little Mix album A&R’d and released on Syco Music, is to be serviced by RCA at the request of Syco and Simon Cowell.”

Cowell has now told The Sun that the decision came after Syco fell out with Modest over a songwriting credit on Little Mix’s latest single “Woman Like Me” ft Nicki Minaj.

Little Mix also said they weren’t keen on recording the song, which was co-written by Ed Sheeran, Jess Glynne and Steve Mac, and was originally recorded by Glynne for her album. The Little Mix track peaked at No.2 on the Official Singles Chart earlier this month.

“The irony was the record they were arguing about, which is ‘Woman Like Me’, they didn’t want to record,” Cowell said. “This was one of those ironic times that we were having a hit and nobody was happy.

“It was just embarrassing,” he continued, “but funnily enough, I was more annoyed again, not about me, but about the fact people who had worked so hard in my company were being misrepresented. Why do artists think they’re more important than staff members? They’re not. They’re the same.”

He said the decision “wasn’t down to money” and added: “Basically, they said we’d done a terrible job. I had agreed not to talk about this publicly because I thought it was a private matter. I said, ‘We can’t work with the management, it’s as simple as that’.

“Everyone’s like: ‘There must be something massive and that’s why it collapsed’. Well, I can show you all the correspondence between me and the girls over the years, there’s never been an instance when we’ve fallen out. As I said in my email to them, I stand by the fact they are the hardest working bunch of girls I’ve ever worked with. They deserve everything they’ve got.”

(Dave J Hogan/Getty Images for MT)Little Mix will release their fifth album, LM5, on 16 November.