Simon Cowell Addresses Little Mix's Syco Exit, Sharing His Side Of The Story

Simon Cowell has shared his side of the story, after it was revealed that Little Mix were parting ways from his record label after six years.

Over the weekend, it was reported that the music mogul’s label, Syco, would no longer be working with acts represented by Modest Management, meaning Little Mix and last year’s ‘X Factor’ winners Rak-Su would be jumping ship to RCA.

While the band’s management declined to comment at the time, when contacted by HuffPost UK, Simon has now told The Sun what led to the end of their professional relationship.

He told the newspaper the split came about after a row with Modest Management over a songwriting credit on ‘Woman Like Me’, the latest Little Mix single.

“It was just embarrassing 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,” Simon revealed. “Why do artists think they’re more important than staff members? They’re not. They’re the same.

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

Insisting the decision “wasn’t down to money”, he continued: “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’.”

He was also quick to dismiss the idea that there was any bad blood between himself and the individual members of Little Mix, adding: “Everyone’s like, ‘There must have been 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.”

Simon also claimed he’d be meeting up with the group later this week, so they can discuss the subject in person.

Little Mix were previously the most successful act in the UK on the Syco roster, which still features acts including ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ runner-up Susan Boyle, former Fifth Harmony singer Camila Cabello, ‘X Factor’ judge Louis Tomlinson and LSD, a collaborative project comprised of Labrinth, Sia and Diplo.

The label’s biggest success story was probably One Direction, who made a huge splash internationally after achieving fame on ‘The X Factor’, eventually going their separate ways in early 2016.

On Friday, Little Mix will release their fifth album, ‘LM5’.