"Salute" is a song recorded by British girl group Little Mix for their second studio album of the same name (2013). It was released on 30 May 2014 as the album's third and final single. It was co-written by the group (Perrie Edwards, Jesy Nelson, Leigh-Anne Pinnock and Jade Thirlwall) with TMS (Thomas Barnes, Peter Kelleher and Ben Kohn) and Maegan Cottone, and produced by TMS. Lyrically, "Salute" is a girl-power song, being called "a call to arms for women everywhere to stand up and fight whatever imaginary enemy is standing in their way," with military metaphors, war sirens, and hip hop and trap influences, drawing comparisons to Destiny's Child and Beyoncé's "Run the World (Girls)". The backing track samples Xzibit's Paparazzi.

Music critics gave the song positive reviews, with most praising its empowering lyrics and military-inspired drum beats. Some even noticed it would fit perfectly as an opening song for the tour, as well as being one of the strongest tracks of 2013. The song became a top-ten hit on the charts of Scotland and United Kingdom, becoming the band's sixth top-ten single in the UK, while reaching the top-twenty in Ireland and top-forty in Belgium. A music video for the song features the band dancing in an underground warehouse with an entourage of male dancers, some of whom are on leads. To promote the song, the band performed in many TV shows, including Britain's Got Talent and the Today Show.

After winning the eighth series of The X Factor UK, British girl-group Little Mix released their debut album, DNA, in November 2012. The album received generally favorable reviews from music critics, while also being a success on the charts, besides spawning the number-one single "Wings", as well as the top-three hit "DNA" and the top-twenty singles "Change Your Life" and "How Ya Doin'?". A few months later, the group stated that they were working on a new album, stating: " I think we probably might mature slightly for this album, but we want to keep the kind of uplifting message we had on the last one. [...] We’re just gonna make it better; step it up." "It's definitely matured more and it's a bit more R&B," they completed in another interview. The girl group recorded material in Los Angeles with producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, as well as TMS, who produced their number-one single "Wings". The production team produced six tracks on the album, including "Salute", which also became the album's title. On 5 April 2014, the group announced the track as the album's third single. They teased their single announcement with a video of them rehearsing a dance routine to the track alongside their backing dancers. Later, on 19 April 2014, the group revealed the single's cover art.

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