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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Zoe Delaney

Little Mix's Leigh-Anne Pinnock wins major solo award for her anti-racism work

Leigh-Anne Pinnock has added another solo award to her packed trophy cabinet.

The inspirational singer - who is reportedly currently 'negotiating' a 'seven-figure' book deal - was honoured for her groundbreaking campaigning work against racism on Thursday night.

Leigh-Anne, 30, received the 'Media Champion' award at the British Diversity Awards for her BBC documentary Race, Pop and Power, which highlighted her experiences as a Black woman in the music industry.

Westlife's Mark Feehily and Liverpool FC legend Jamie Carragher also won major gongs at the prestigious event hosted by June Sarpong OBE.

In Race, Pop & Power, which aired on BBC Three last year, Leigh-Anne explored her painful experience as the only Black member of the hugely successful girl group Little Mix.

Leigh-Anne Pinnock has begun life after Little Mix with another solo honour (Dave J Hogan/Getty Images)
The award-winning trio announced last year they would be going on hiatus after their 2022 tour (Getty Images for Warner Bros)

The powerful documentary focused on the mum-of-two's personal journey as she detailed the racism she encountered being a black woman in the music industry, and recalled being 'treated differently' from her bandmates Perrie Edwards, Jade Thirlwall and Jesy Nelson since they shot to fame on The X Factor in 2011.

Since airing in May 2021, Race, Pop and Power has been nominated for multiple awards - included a NTA last year - and Thursday night's win made it the third honour Leigh-Anne has received for her revolutionary documentary work.

Race, Pop and Power started a lot of important conversations (BBC)

Elsewhere at the Burberry-sponsored British Diversity Awards, Westlife's Mark Feehily - who recently appeared on ITV's Masked Singer - picked up the Global Recognition Award for Diversity.

The World of Our Own, who has notched up a staggering 14 number one singles with Westlife, is a vocal campaigner for surrogacy rights for LGBT+ families.

"This is an incredible honour and the most meaningful award I have collected in my career. I mean, I've won awards for my music and awards with Westlife but this is something very special," the dad-of-one said of being recognised at the prestigious awards ceremony.

The singer and his fiancé announced the arrival of their daughter Layla just months before the first lockdown (Instagram)

"I am proud and I hope it goes some way towards highlighting the issues still faced by LGBT+ families who want to start families of their own."

He added: "There is still a lot to do and our work will not stop until we have achieved full equality."

The Irish singer, 41, welcomed daughter Layla into the world with his fiancé Cailean O’Neill on 1 October, 2019, via a surrogate.

Mark and Cailean got engaged in the Maldives months before becoming parents in 2019 (Instagram)

"All in all, all I can say is it's lovely because all I think about is her now, I don't have to think about myself so much," Mark told the Mirror shortly after becoming a father.

"I used to maybe overthink and question everything, so it's nice to actually have a break from that.

"All of your focus is on another little person and a tiny little smile from her at the moment is like winning the lottery or something, it's the best feeling in the world, so to get so much joy out of a tiny thing, it just puts everything into perspective, you know."

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