Joan of Arc

Album: LM5 (2018)
Charted: 61
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Songfacts®:

  • Another Little Mix empowerment anthem, this song finds the girls namechecking two historical feminist icons to illustrate how strong they feel.

    Man I feel like Cleopatra, Joan Of Arc, Queen of Hearts, yeah
    Tonight is only me that matters
    Oh you are the feminist type?
    Hell yeah, I am


    Cleopatra was the last ruler of ancient Egypt's Macedonian dynasty. One of the great romantic figures of history, she had relationships with the Roman dictator Julius Caesar and after he was murdered, his military commander Mark Antony. However, she was also an able ruler demonstrating strategic acumen as a diplomat and naval commander.

    Joan Of Arc was a teenager who persuaded King Charles VII that she had a divine mission to expel the English from France. At the age of 18 she raised the siege of Orleans and defeated the English at Patay.
  • Other artists that have namechecked the medieval French heroine in their song titles include OMD (both "Joan of Arc," "Maid Of Orleans (The Waltz Joan Of Arc)"), Arcade Fire, Ryan Leslie, Madonna and Leonard Cohen.
  • Little Mix's Leigh-Anne Pinnock explained to Billboard the song is about "not feeling scared to call yourself beautiful. Why shouldn't you!?"
  • Little Mix wrote the song in a session with Zimbabwean-American singer-songwriter Alexandra "Shun" Govere who also co-penned the girls 2016 single "Touch." Like, the British four piece, Shun is a feminist and they explicitly mention the pro-woman movement during "Joan of Arc."

    Oh, you on that feminist tip
    Hell yeah, I am!"


    Thirlwell explained that they discussed during their writing how there's "a weird stigma attached to admitting you're a feminist." Little Mix have never understood why this is, so they decided to declare their feminism in this song.

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