Stirring up trouble

X Factor winners Little Mix have outraged fans of Irish performer Damien Rice by releasing a cover of his hit song Cannonball, says Ed Power

It was early December, and Little Mix had just won. After weeks of tension, Leigh-Anne Pinnock sat in the X Factor green room, sobbing, overwhelmed with emotion.

“After it was announced that we’d finished first, I remember running off the stage, trying to find somewhere quiet and crying and crying,” she says. “All the hard work, everything we had been through, had suddenly all paid off. Every day, I pinch myself. I honestly don’t think it is ever going to sink in. It’s like living a dream. You keep thinking ‘am I going to wake up’?”