No toxicity, no sad bangers – girl group Flo are revitalising pop
These days, nothing shifts pop records like melancholic introspection, with ‘sad bangers’ from soul-searching artists such as Billie Eilish and Lewis Capaldi frequently topping the charts. So it feels like a breath of fresh air to watch Flo, the London girl group making waves on both sides of the Atlantic, sing about love and friendship in a way that is, above all, about having fun.
Flo are being heralded as the new Destiny’s Child or TLC, a British group ready to crack America. Made up of 20-year-olds Jorja Douglas and Stella Quaresma, as well as 19-year-old Renée Downer (Quaresma and Downer met at the prestigious Sylvia Young Theatre School, then discovered Douglas on Instagram) they became the first group to win the BRITs Rising Star Award earlier this year, after 2022 mega-hit Cardboard Box took over every radio station, DJ booth and TikTok account.
On Thursday night at London’s HERE at Outernet, a new live music venue beneath Tottenham Court Road, Flo arrived on stage with the confidence of a group who had spent decades performing, every dance move perfectly choreographed, harmonies flawless.
The crowd, too, behaved as if they were here to watch a legacy artist: hundreds of bodies in the intimate space grooving to every note; screaming like banshees at every sultry wink from one of the three women. Unlike their girl-group predecessors, it’s striking that Flo have managed to avoid the ‘lead girl’ curse: on stage, they constantly switch positions; in interviews, each member has their turn to shine. It’s a welcome change from Noughties toxicity, when Destiny’s Child really meant Beyoncé and the Pussycat Dolls meant Nicole Scherzinger.
Their newest single, Fly Girl, features Missy Elliott, and although the US rapper didn’t make a surprise appearance at this London show, the upbeat song about the joy of getting ready with your girlfriends has the makings of a summer anthem.
A cover of popstar Jamelia’s 2003 hit Superstar charged the room, the lyric (“I don’t know who you are / But you must be some kind of superstar”) winking to Flo’s own dizzying ascent, while the chorus to Cardboard Box (“So Ima’ put your s— in a cardboard box / Changing my number and I’m changing the locks”) prompted nearly every fan to record from their phone with one hand and wave their drinks joyously with the other.
When Little Mix confirmed their hiatus in 2022, a gaping hole was left in British pop: was the girl group era finally over? Now, Flo – with Little Mix’s Jade Thirwall herself watching intently from the audience – have arrived to take up the mantle.
Playing Manchester on Monday, then touring UK festivals this summer
