She was the group’s only Black member, and the only one whose vocals were once left off a track entirely. The New Orleans and Houston-raised artist’s formative years coincided with her breakthrough as a member of Fifth Harmony, the “X Factor”-packaged girl group that launched her onto the charts and simultaneously into trauma. “There’s so much we have to offer and nothing we can’t do.”Īnd yet she is someone who has had reason to not always trust her female peers or the process of working with others. “I love working with women,” Normani says. There have since been collaborations with Megan Thee Stallion (“Diamonds”) and a cameo in Megan and Cardi B’s video for “WAP.” All the while, behind-the-scenes collaborators, like hitmaker Starrah, encouraged Normani to start taking the reins on her own production.
A few months later, when Smith happened to be recording in a nearby studio, Normani carpe-diemed his invitation to hop on “Dancing With a Stranger,” which hit No. With Khalid, there was the slow-burning ballad “Love Lies,” an experience she says epitomized “trusting the process” and letting go of her perfectionist impulses. She kept the passenger seat filled and enrolled in the school of creative collaboration. Doctorow once said that writing is like driving a car at night - “You can see only as far as your headlights” - Normani chose instead to road-trip down the path of self-discovery with company. “I needed to keep asking questions.” But if E.L. “I needed time to go through my process,” says Normani with a tinge of vulnerability. How do you drop something so promising, fans wondered, and then not deliver more?