Leigh-Anne Pinnock Teases What Fans Can Expect From Debut Solo Album: ‘I Am a Pop Girl at Heart’

Leigh-Anne Pinnock is gearing up to release more solo music in the imminent future, and sat down with Billboard News to chat about what fans can expect from her upcoming LP, and why she chose to release “Don’t Say Love” as a first single.

“‘Don’t Say Love’ came in the beginning of the process, always knew it was a banger,” Pinnock tells Billboard News host Tetris Kelly. “It kind of became obvious quite quickly that it needed to be the first single, especially with the meaning of it, the idea of wanting to be love wholeheartedly at 100 percent, I think it was really relatable to me, and I just, ‘Yeah, this needs to be the first one.'”

As for what her future album may sounds like, Pinnock gave a few hints. “I’m an R&B girl. Everyone knows that I’m an old-school R&B girl,” she says, citing Jagged Edge, Dru Hill, Immature and Ginuwine as some of her favorite artists in the genre. “At the same time, though, I really do want to incorporate the other genres that I love, so we have some reggae stuff on there. I think I am a pop girl at heart, too, so I just feel like that stamp is always going to be in the mix.”

Though being a solo artist is a different experience from being in a girl group, the “Don’t Say Love” singer is taking it in stride. “I don’t have my sisters to fall back on, so I do really miss the sisterhood,” she notes. “[It also] feels so freeing and a sense of empowerment to stand on my own and know I’m doing this for me. It just feels like the right time. It feels so right to me.”

Leigh-Anne — as one third of Little Mix — earned two top 10 albums Billboard 200 with 2013’s DNA (No. 4) and 2014’s Salute (No. 6). Single “Black Magic” peaked at No. 67 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2015.

Watch Pinnock’s full interview with Billboard News above.