Before Normani releases her highly anticipated debut solo album, the singer is looking back on her time with Fifth Harmony. In a new interview with The Cut published on April 30, Normani, 27, said she was initially thrilled to be recruited for a girl group.
“I didn’t want to be at the forefront,” she told the publication. “It wasn’t until later that I started feeling like a token.”
Back in 2012, Normani first appeared on X Factor with judges Britney Spears, L.A. Reid, Demi Lovato and Simon Cowell. She was asked to join Dinah Jane, Lauren Jauregui, Camila Cabello and Ally Brooke in a new group that would go on to be called Fifth Harmony. They signed a joint record deal under Reid’s label Epic Records via Syco Music.
According to The Cut, Normani referred to her “time in the group” like a prison sentence ordered and duly served. She also alleged Fifth Harmony had no artistic control over their own music. Instead, they were simply given records and told to sing them.
In the summer of 2016, Normani began receiving death threats and other inappropriate messages in her inbox. A few days before, she had casually described Camila as “quirky” and “cute” in an interview, with some fans interpreting the words as a dig.
Normani’s mom, Andrea Hamilton, couldn’t believe what her daughter began to experience. As she told The Cut, “I remember going on social media and seeing my daughter’s face Photoshopped on bodies of people being whipped.”
According to Normani, nobody from the record label reached out. Instead, it was just business as usual.
“We just continued to do shows and I was fearing for my life,” she said. “But they continued to put me out there on the stage. It was pretty much like, ‘The show goes on.’”
Normani added, “It was probably the lowest point for me.”
Now, the “Motivation” singer is looking toward the future and is excited for her fans to hear new music made on her terms. Although the album took longer to perfect than some expected, she says she simply needed time to actually live for herself.
“For so long, I allowed music, numbers, and how successful I am to define me,” Normani said. “There’s so much life I’ve lived in the span of creating this body of work.”