Normani Admits To Feeling ‘Overlooked’ In Fifth Harmony

BY: Walker

Published 3 years ago

Normani has opened up about her time in Fifth Harmony. In a new magazine interview, the “Motivation” hitmaker admitted that she felt “overlooked” while she was in the vocal girl group.

via: Yahoo! Entertainment

One watch of her latest music video “Wild Side” and “underdog” is hardly the first adjective that comes to mind when thinking of the powerful performer. But, as she shared with Allure, being bullied as a kid took a lasting toll. “I’ve always felt like the underdog,” she said, “in anything that I’ve ever done.”

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While the 25-year-old multihyphenate is harnessing her many talents now as a solo artist, it seems she wasn’t fully able to during the years she spent making music as a member of Fifth Harmony. “I didn’t get to really sing in the group. I felt like I was overlooked,” she told the magazine. “That idea has been projected on me. Like, this is your place.”

Well, as Normani has since made clear with her own hit tracks, her place is at the center of a stage. Simultaneously, she’s serving as an example to the world of why Black women should never be generalized.

“My purpose in this work that I do is for other people that feel like they have Black women figured out. There’s so many layers to us, there’s so many textures, there’s so much that we’re capable of doing,” Normani said. “Yes, I can throw ass. But I can also give you a proper eight-count, and I can do ballet, and I can do contemporary dance. If I want to sing this pop ballad, then you’re going to love it! While you see my Black face!”

If anything is evident from her new song—and its sizzling music video—Normani is unapologetically doing things her way now.

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“I just felt this sense of me coming into my own,” she said of the song, the lead single for her upcoming debut solo album. “I feel like a woman now.”

And certainly an underdog no more.

As she told Allure, “Now you all are finally going to be able to see me tap into that awareness—that I know I’m the s–t.”

Normani had previously gotten candid about how her time in Fifth Harmony impacted her self-esteem. Speaking to Women’s Health in November 2020, the musician said she struggled with how she viewed herself after not being given many opportunities in the spotlight as part of the group.

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