Idolators Rachel Sonis described the song as a "kiss-off anthem at its finest" and remarked that it felt like "a confident comeback for the group". Emilee Linder from Fuse said that the song was a "Taylor Swift–like move to play into the media's narrative", and praised Perrie's "husky vocals". The song was widely understood to refer to band member Perrie Edwards' then recent breakup with One Direction's Zayn Malik. Billboard ranked "Shout Out to My Ex" at number 58 on their "100 Best Pop Songs of 2016" list, acknowledging the song's "power-chord-pumped unison chorus that demands to be sung at the top of one's lungs". At the 2017 Brit Awards "Shout Out to My Ex" won Little Mix their first ever Brit Award for British Single of the Year.
Chart performance
The song debuted at number one on the UK Singles Chart, achieving 95,000 combined sales to give the band the fourth UK number one of their careers, following "Cannonball" in 2011, "Wings" in 2012 and "Black Magic" in 2015. "Shout Out to My Ex" was also the first UK number one single of 2016 with a female lead, as the three women with number one singles earlier in the year, Kyla, MØ and Halsey, were all featured artists. It stayed at number one the following week, making it Little Mix's second song to spend multiple weeks at number 1. It was also certified silver by the BPI for selling over 200,000 copies in its second week. It spent a third week before being replaced by "Rockabye" by Clean Bandit. It debuted at number 6 in Ireland and rose to the number one spot in its second week, making it Little Mix's third number one single there. In the US, the song debuted at number 4 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart. The following week, it debuted on the BillboardHot 100 at number 69. It also reached number 30 on the Digital Songs chart, Little Mix's highest placing on that particular list to date. In Canada, it debuted on the Canadian Hot 100 at number 37, becoming the group's first top 40 single there. It also peaked at number 7 in New Zealand, making "Shout Out to My Ex" the group's highest peaking song in the country and their first top ten single. It debuted at number 16 on the Australian ARIA Charts, then rose 12 places to number 4 the following week. This makes it Little Mix's second top 5 single in Australia. It is also the group's highest peak for a song in many European countries. It charted in the top 40 in Flanders, the Netherlands, Sweden, Spain, Norway and Denmark.
Music video
The video is set in the Tabernas Desert in Almería, Spain, and was released at 12:00 BST on 21 October 2016 on Vevo. Directed by Sarah Chatfield, the band hangs out in a trailer, takes a drive along a highway lined with lavender-coloured trees and poses by a pool. Filming took place in June 2016 whilst the girls were on their Get Weird Tour.
Live performances
The song was unveiled with its X Factor performance, in which the girls started in a car outside its recording studios, flanked by female cheerleaders in T-shirts with the names of male and female exes on them, which the cheerleaders removed towards the end of the song. The band promoted the song in a non-singing appearance on The One Show, minus Jade Thirlwall, and also promoted it on Good Morning Britain, on Belgian TV show Jonas Van Geel, at the BBC Teen Awards, on the Norwegian program Senkveld, in a non-singing appearance on The Jonathan Ross Show, and also performed it on The X Factor Australia, after the contestants performed their 2012 debut single "Wings", on Italian X Factor on 24 November, and at LOS40 Music Awards 2016 in Barcelona. The song was part of Little Mix's setlist whilst supporting Ariana Grande on the North American leg of her Dangerous Woman Tour.
