Songfacts®:

• This is the lead single from British four-piece girl group Little Mix's debut album. Jesy, Perrie, Leigh-Anne and Jade performed the song for the first time at the July 1, 2012 T4 On The Beach concert. Asked by Digital Spy if "Wings" had been influenced by any artists in particular, Jade said that the music of Beyoncé and Michael Jackson had a bearing on the tune. The song was released on August 19, 2012.
• This was co-written by Iain James whose other credits include Professor Green and Emeli Sandé's UK #1 hit "Read All About It."
• The single finds the girl singing about spreading their wings and flying rather than letting the dissing of haters bring them down. Its traveling through the air lyrical content ties in with the title of Little Mix's autobiography, Ready To Fly, which was released a couple of weeks after this song.
• The Little Mix quartet all contributed to the writing of the song and Jesy Nelson told Attitude that they didn't want it to be "too cheesy." "It's a feel-good song," she said. "We want people to feel something when they listen to it. But we didn't want to be too cheesy with the 'Believe in yourself' thing.
  
  There's nothing wrong with writing songs about clubs and parties," Jesy continued, "but I think it's cool to do a song that means something."
• The song debuted at #1 on the UK singles chart, meaning Little Mix became the first X Factor winners to reach peak position with a track other than their coronation release since Alexandra Burke reached the summit with "Bad Boys" back in 2009. It was also only the third in the history of the show to do so (Leona Lewis' "Bleeding Love" being the other one).
• Jesy explained the song's meaning to Artist Direct: "''Wings' is literally about not letting anyone put you down," she said. "It's about believing in yourself. Haters are going to hate. You have to believe in yourself and who you are. That's what 'Wings' is about. It's a strong message for our fans. We love it, and we think it's quite uplifting."
• This was the first UK chart-topper that singer-songwriter MNEK was involved with (he's credited as a programmer). Other UK #1s in which he was listed as a co-writer include Duke Dumont's breakthrough hit "Need U (100%)" and Oliver Heldens' Katy Hill featuring number "Gecko (Overdrive)."