The members of the new girl group L2M weren't alive during the Spice Girls' reign, but in a way, they continue their legacy. L2M ("Listening 2 Music")'s first single, "Girlz" was released this morning, and it's pretty damn cute.
L2M is made up of five girls: Mariangeli, 12; McKenzie, 11; Tati, 12; and Jenna and Lexi, both 11. So young. None of them are teenagers yet!
According to a Warner Bros. press release, L2M was masterminded, produced and funded by Mads Munk, a Danish entrepreneur who also funded the LEGO® Friends movie Girlz 4 Life. In other words, this group was constructed to promote a straight-to-video kiddie flick.
But that doesn't mean they couldn't become one of the biggest new teen pop sensations. The Spice Girls, *NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys were also masterminded groups, and they were hugely popular, and raked in millions. On top of that, L2M's creative director is Tim Byrne who was previously at Syco Entertainment—Simon Cowell's company—and a producer for The X Factor. He has worked with One Direction and Fifth Harmony.
Plus, "Girlz" is catchy, with its schoolyard rhythm, marching band horns, and chants.
Whether L2M can follow in the footsteps of other successful girl groups—like Destiny’s Child, 702, Dream, the Pussycat Dolls, and, more recently, Fifth Harmony—remains to be seen.
And while it's refreshing to hear a bunch of pre-teen girls reciting, "Be who you are, yeah, that's the motto," the group—and this song in particular—plays into an almost pandering idea of "girl power." And it's VERY ironic that they sing, "Don't need no voice tell us no/We refuse to be controlled."
Still. We say get it, girls.
Kelsey McKinney is a culture staff writer for Fusion.