Jesy Nelson’s new single with Nicki Minaj met with mixed reactions

The singer says she found the inspiration for the song after going through heartbreak

Fans have mixed reactions to Jesy Nelson’s first single as a solo artist after she left Little Mix in December last year.

The 30-year-old singer’s song “Boyz” which samples Sean Diddy Combs’s “Bad Boy 4 Life” and features rapper Nicki Minaj, was available on all audio streaming and media service providers after midnight on Friday 8 October.

The singer says she found the inspiration for the song after going through heartbreak.

“Being nice a little boring when you in between the sheets / I love bad boys for life,” Nelson sings.

“Why do I like bad boys, what is wrong with me? Why am I attracted to anyone that looks naughty?” the singer recalled thinking, in a press statement.

“So I messaged [production duo Loose Change] and was like ‘you’ll think I’m a nutter but I really want to write a song about why most women like bad boys and I want to use the Diddy song’ and they were like ‘let’s do it’.”

While some fans said they were “absolutely obsessed” with the singer’s new song, others claimed that Nelson has produced “the worst three minutes I’ve ever heard in my life”.

“I literally can’t even describe how proud I am of Jesy. it’s so amazing to watch her blossom as a solo artist and her happiness really radiates,” one fan wrote on Twitter.

“I’m absolutely obsessed with the song and video and I can’t believe it’s real.”

Another said: “’Boyz’ is amazing! The best part of the video for me is after Nicki Minaj’s verse when she smiles and dances to the chorus!”

However, not everyone is happy with the single, with some calling it the “worst song of 2021”.

“Boyz by Jesy Nelson gotta be top 10 worst songs of the year, that chorus/hook is so terrible, Nicki’s part was the only good one but it couldn’t even save it,” one person commented.

Nelson herself said ahead of the song’s release that people would either “love or hate” her new sound.

She recently revealed that she is currently not speaking with her former Little Mix bandmates, Leigh-Anne Pinnock, Jade Thirlwall, and Perrie Edwards.

“It is weird because for so many years we were as close as sisters, together every hour of the day for weeks, sharing beds, laughing, crying, just 24/7 the four of us together and then nothing,” she told Glamour.

She also admitted that she has not met the newborn babies of Edwards and Pinnock: “No. I’ve sent a few texts, but that’s it. I can’t explain it, it’s like there has to be this distance.”

Little Mix are releasing a new album, Between Us, next month.