Jesy Nelson


Jessica Louise Nelson is an English singer, known for being a member of the British four-piece girl group Little Mix. The group was formed on the eighth series of The X Factor in 2011 and became the first group to win the competition. Since their debut the girl group has sold just under 60 million records worldwide, placing them in the top 5 of the best selling girl groups of all time. In 2019, Nelson presented a BBC Three documentary based on her experiences with body image and online bullying titled Jesy Nelson: Odd One Out, which won the Factual Entertainment Award at the 25th National Television Awards.

Early life

Jessica Louise Nelson was born on 14 June 1991. She was raised in Romford, East London to parents John Nelson, a businessman, and Janice White, a Police Community Service 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. She also attended Sylvia Young and Yvonne Rhodes Theatre Schools alongside classmate Rita Ora. Prior to auditioning for The X Factor, Nelson worked as a barmaid in Dagenham.

Career

Her first audition was "Bust Your Windows" by Jazmine Sullivan. Since joining Little Mix, she has faced cyber-bullying and struggled to cope during her time on The X Factor. 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. Later, a decision was made to bring back the four to form the four-piece group Rhythmix, and they progressed to judges' houses. They eventually reached the live shows and were mentored by Tulisa Contostavlos. In 28 October 2011, it was announced that the group's new name would be Little Mix. In 11 December 2011, Little Mix were announced as the winners, the first group to win the programme. Nelson had released five albums with the group DNA, Salute, Get Weird, Glory Days and LM5 with a sixth one to be released in 2020.
Nelson starred in a documentary for BBC One and BBC Three titled Jesy Nelson: Odd One Out which explored body image, mental health and online abuse, which aired on 12 September 2019. In the documentary, she revealed that after the online abuse regarding her weight, she attempted suicide in 2013.

Personal life

In her BBC documentary Odd One Out, Nelson was vocal about her struggle with body image. She stated that the extreme amount of online abuse about her weight in newspapers and Twitter drove her to attempt suicide in 2013.
In 2014, Nelson began dating Rixton lead singer, Jake Roche. The couple became engaged on 19 July 2015, but broke up in November 2016. In 2019, Nelson began dating Love Island contestant Chris Hughes but broke up in April 2020 due to personal reasons.

Discography

Songwriting credits

Filmography

Awards and nominations

YearAward ceremonyCategoryNominee/workResult
2019I Talk Telly AwardsBest DocumentaryOdd One Out
2019OnSide AwardsGold awardOdd One Out
2020National Television AwardsFactual EntertainmentOdd One Out
2020Visionary Honours AwardsDocumentary of the YearOdd One Out
2020PLT AwardsInspirational Influencer of the YearHerself