Jade’s ‘Angel of My Dreams’ music video imagines a multiverse of pop mothers

Jade Thirlwall – member of former pop monolith Little Mix – has released her debut single, ‘Angel of My Dreams’, and its accompanying music video.

The music video for the debut solo single, both of which dropped today (19 July), sees Jade as various pop stars, all running on the hamster wheel of the industry, under the watchful eye of a greedy manager.

The video starts with Jade busking – interspersed with shots from real-life Jade’s X Factor audition – as another version of the star in a giant blonde pop star wig, on the short leash of a greedy music manager in a vile tracksuit, is paraded around for paparazzi.

As busker Jade begins to sing, the greedy boss’s attention slips from pop star Jade, as he focuses in on his new target – the new angel of his dreams. Oh, it’s all very clever.

There’s a lyrical nod to Jade’s past in the song’s first verse that goes: “Sold my soul to a psycho”. ‘Psycho’ happens to sound a lot like ‘SyCo’ – the former label of Little Mix, run by X Factor judge Simon Cowell. A coincidence, we’re sure.

Anyway, busker Jade is now the new pop icon, and with a contract signed in blood under her belt, things go well for a while. But then, the greedy boss is seen having an affair with a yet another new Jade, with our original fighting for his attention just as her predecessor did.

The video ends with OG Jade back where she started, peering through crowds of fans for the new angel of everyone’s dreams.

There’s dance breaks, there’s costume changes, there’s vocals and there’s a “Puppet on a String” sample from Sandie Shaw’s 1967 hit. It is, to be blunt, c**ty.

Speaking about the single, Jade said that “Angel of My Dreams” is intended to be a “pop punch to the face”.

“I want people to be like ‘oh my god, I didn’t expect that’ – but then want to listen to it again,” she explained. “I didn’t want to do a safe first single, that was really important to me.”

“I’m setting the tone of who I am as an artist on my own. I want people to hear it and be like ‘what the f**k is that song?’. My worst nightmare is for someone to hear my song and go ‘that’s nice’,” the South Shields-born icon and fierce LGBTQ+ ally stated.

“Angel of My Dreams” by Jade is available to stream now.