Glory Days is the fourth studio album by British girl group Little Mix, released on 18 November 2016 by Syco Music and Columbia Records. When released it was met with acclaim from critics, with lyrics that addresses themes on sexuality, sexual relationships, female solitude, and other topics. Little Mix worked with various producers including MNEK, Freedo, Matt Rad, all of whom had worked with them on previous releases.
The album's lead single "Shout Out to My Ex", peaked at number-one on the UK Singles Chart, becoming the group's fourth number-one. Its second single "Touch" reached number four, while its third single "No More Sad Songs", with Machine Gun Kelly, reached number fifteen. Its final single "Power", with Stormzy, peaked at number six, while a fifth single "Reggaetón Lento" with CNCO, was released after the reissued edition of the album. The album's lead single won British Single of the Year at the Brit Awards in 2017. In 2018, Glory Days received two Brit Awards nominations for British Single of the Year and British Video of the Year.
Glory Days showcased the best first-week sales so far in Little Mix's career, selling 100,000 copies in its first week. It had the highest first-week UK album sales for a girl group since Spiceworld (1997) and became the fastest-selling number-one album from a girl group since Survivor (2001). It set a new chart record for the most weeks spent inside the top 40 of the UK Albums Chart for a girl group album, spending 89 weeks on the charts. It also became first album by a girl group to reach 2 billion streams on Spotify and has since reached over 2.5 billion streams on the platform. It is included on the list of best-selling albums of the 2010s in the United Kingdom.
In Ireland it became Little Mix's second consecutive number-one album, and peaked at number-one on the Scottish Albums Chart and UK Albums Chart. It spent five consecutive weeks at number one, becoming the longest reigning number one album by a girl group since Spice (1996). It entered the top ten in Australia, New Zealand, Netherlands, and Spain, and charted in other regions including Italy, Germany, and the United States, where it peaked at number twenty-five on the US Billboard 200. As of 2017, Glory Days, has sold 1.6 million copies worldwide.
Singles
"Shout Out to My Ex" was released as the lead single on 16 October 2016, and was premiered on the day of The X Factor UK results show. It was made available to download along with the pre-order of the album. The song debuted at number one on the UK Singles Chart, remaining at number one for three weeks. The single received two Brit awards nominations, and won gave the group their first Brit Award win, winning British Single of the Year at the 2017 Brit Awards. It also became the second-best selling girl group single released in the United Kingdom, behind "Wannabe", by the Spice Girls. It topped the charts in Ireland, Scotland, Israel, and peaked inside the top ten in both Australia and New Zealand.
On 5 December, the group announced "Touch" as the second single. It reached number 4 on the UK Singles Chart, and peaked within the top ten of the charts in Ireland and Scotland. It has since been regarded as a gay anthem. On 1 March, "No More Sad Songs" was released as the third single from the album. The new remix of the song featured American hip-hop artist Machine Gun Kelly. Despite minimal promotion, the song charted at number 15 on the UK Singles Chart.
On 19 May, Little Mix announced through their official Twitter that "Power" would be released as the album's fourth and final official single on 26 May. Two hours after the announcement of the single's release, they announced that the single release of "Power" would be remixed, with an added feature from English grime act Stormzy. The song reached number six on the UK Singles Chart. It has become a female empowerment song and was used as one of the theme songs for WWE's Royal Rumble 2018 event.
On 24 November 2017, the album was reissued as Glory Days: The Platinum Edition. It featured the single "Reggaetón Lento (Remix)", with CNCO. The single topped the charts in Bulgaria, Sweden, Romania and Slovenia, and reached number five on the UK Singles Chart, becoming CNCO's first top-ten single and Little Mix's twelfth. According to Official Charts in 2019, "Shout Out To My Ex" (2) and "Touch" (7) were named two of the biggest girl group singles from the past 25 years.