Normani Describes Fifth Harmony as 'Blessing' and Prison Sentence Ordered and Duly Served

Since then, Normani has released sporadic music, but she's finally ready to put a stamp on a full-length release. And she appears finally ready to start fully unpacking her years in the group that was created for her, which she now sees as a blessing that also traumatized her, per a new interview with The Cut.

Like One Direction in the UK, Fifth Harmony was created on The X Factor by the judges from contestants who'd auditioned as solo artists. In other words, the girls did not know one another before they were suddenly this five-person group that then started to take off.

It was a lot for Normani, just 15 at the time, who had to first deal with the blow from the show's judges that they didn't feel she was ready to be a solo artist, to suddenly finding herself in this famous girl group.

Normani described those formative years in the most successful girl group of the '10s as "like a prison sentence ordered and duly served," per The Cut.

In a new interview with the magazine, she admits she kind of used the group in the beginning to hide. "I didn't want to be at the forefront, she said. It wasn't until later she started to feel like a "token." While the group was culturally diverse, Normani was the only Black member.

In the summer of 2016, while the group was enjoying the heights of their success, Normani said she woke to an onslaught of racist images circulating of her online, including lynched Black people, her face superimposed on gorillas, people calling her "Normonkey" and literal death threats.

According to Entertainment Tonight, this sudden attack came after Normani called fellow band member Camila Cabello "quirky" and "cute," with some interpreting the words as indicative of tension and somehow a dig at Cabello.

Her mother Andrea recalled "going on social media and seeing my daughter’s face Photoshopped on bodies of people being whipped." What's worse, it was at this time that fellow Fifth Harmony band-member Cabello's own past racist social media posts from the early days of the group resurfaced.

In a Rolling Stone interview in 2020, Normani said of Cabello's Tumblr posts, "It would be dishonest if I said that this particular scenario didn't hurt me. It was devastating that this came from a place that was supposed to be a safe haven and a sisterhood."

"We just continued to do shows, and I was fearing for my life," she told The Cut. "But they continued to put me out there on the stage. It was pretty much like, 'The show goes on.'"

Cabello would leave the group in 2016, the four remaining members would go on to tell the Los Angeles Times that they felt like "puppets" to their label, overworked and treated like "literal slaves," per a hot mic audio from member Lauren Jauregui. The group also included Ally Brooke and Dinah Jane.

That whole experience left her feeling adrift and alone, with Normani saying it fractured her relationship with the girls, the label, the media, and even those who referred to themselves as the group's fans. "It was probably the lowest point for me," she told The Cut.

During her chat with RS, Normani expressed her disappointment in how Cabello handled the outing of her social media posts. "It took days for her to acknowledge what I was dealing with online and then years for her to take responsibility for the offensive tweets that recently resurfaced. Whether or not it was her intention, this made me feel like I was second to the relationship that she had with her fans."

These days, it seems like Normani is more in control of her cultural and social identity than ever before. The Cut took note of one of her fan page reactions to when she scrubbed her Instagram recently. Fans quickly noticed that the fan page reaction ("WHAT IS HAPPENING") showed a screenshot from someone logged into Normani's account.

When the outlet asked if her or her team were running the fan page, she replied, "No, I mean, I'm definitely heavily involved." When the interviewer reiterated the question asking if Normani runs any of the pages, or her team, her publicist interrupted, "Yeah, I think we can skip this question."

At least fans know that she's paying attention as she prepares to unleash Dopamine onto the world on June 14.