Music producer Tre Jean-Marie has made a rather bold claim about the last single Little Mix released before Jesy Nelson parted ways with the group.
Shortly before Jesy exited the chart-topping girl band in 2020, the four-piece teamed up with British DJ Nathan Dawe on the single No Time For Tears, which Tré also co-produced.
However, over the weekend, Tre alleged that there was a secret fifth voice on the song, as Jesy was too “over it” to record backing vocals.
After sharing a post celebrating No Time For Tears’ recent gold certification, he added: “Fun fact – all of Jesy’s BVs (and even one of the leads) on No Time For Tears are somebody else impersonating her because she was quite literally over it.”
Little Mix producer Tre Jean-Marie reveals all of Jesy Nelson’s background vocals on their final single as a four, ‘No Time For Tears’, had to be recorded by an impersonator:
— Pop Base (@PopBase) July 20, 2024
“she was quite literally over it” pic.twitter.com/Uhm9zBFmu8
HuffPost UK has contacted Jesy Nelson’s team for comment.
Little Mix previously used a double for Jesy on the cover image for their 2019 single Bounce Back, as the Boyz singer was unwell on the day of the photo shoot.
No Time For Tears was released in November 2020, just weeks after Jesy announced she’d be taking an extended break from the group “for private medical reasons”.
A month later, Jesy announced she was leaving Little Mix after almost a decade with the group, and a follow-up music video for No Time For Tears released in January did not feature any of the group.
While initially the members of Little Mix maintained that Jesy’s departure was an amicable one, this appeared not to be the case as time went on.
Around a year after leaving Little Mix, Jesy released her debut solo single Boyz, which was met with controversy due to accusations of Blackfishing, and around this time, reports claimed that the remaining members of the group had all unfollowed Jesy on social media.
However, unverified leaked DMs reportedly sent by Leigh-Anne Pinnock to a TikTok user later suggested that Jesy had, in fact, blocked the trio.
While these alleged messages were never verified or addressed directly by any members of the group, they did form a major part of the conversation during a now-infamous Instagram live-stream Jesy took part in with her former collaborator Nicki Minaj, in which the rapper branded Leigh-Anne a “fucking clown” and accused her of being “jealous” of Jesy.
During a subsequent interview with The Sunday Telegraph, Little Mix insisted they “don’t really want to dwell” on the fall-out, with Jade Thirlwall noting: “We’ve dealt with it in the best way that we know how, and got each other through it.”
