FEATURE:
Modern Heroines
Part Eighty-Eight: Normani
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FOR this eighty-eighth…
edition of Modern Heroines, I am featuring one of the Pop and R&B world’s hottest, most talented and greatest artists. Normani auditioned as a solo act for the American television series The X Factor in 2012, after which she became a member of the girl group Fifth Harmony. Never really given a chance to step into the spotlight and spread her wings, she seems a lot happier and stronger as a solo artist. Her long-awaited debut studio album is due this year. I shall come to that soon. There are a few interviews that I want to collate, just to give an impression of how far Normani has come and where she is heading. Allure chatted with her back in September:
“Over the past year and a half, a lot of truths have come to light for Normani. The pandemic mandated a change of pace that gave her the space to breathe and go inward. There had been no time to process the trauma she was left feeling after the Fifth Harmony breakup and the pause let Normani finally put her all into being a solo phenomenon. In 2018, she had released a massive single, “Love Lies” with Khalid, and left mouths gaping while she ate up her live performance of the song at the Billboard Music Awards. Then there was the EP collaboration with Calvin Harris, and successful tracks with 6lack (“Waves”) and Sam Smith (“Dancing With a Stranger”). For 2019’s “Motivation,” Normani opted not to have a featured artist and the single gained even more traction than its predecessors, thanks to the nostalgic, bubblegum-pink music video that zoomed in on her athleticism and dance talents.
Coming out as a new artist for the second time is a challenge, but Normani returned on fire. Now, the star in bloom is in the final stages of producing her debut solo album, reveling in her grown womanhood, and at home with so much more of who she is. “A lot of breakthroughs are happening these days,” she says proudly.
Laurel DeWitt cabbage top. Chanel earrings and necklace. To create a similar look: Naked Cherry Eyeshadow Palette, 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil in Perversion, Vice Lipstick in Big Bang, and Stay Naked Threesome in Fly by Urban Decay. Photographed by: Adrienne Raquel. Cover illustration: Andreea Robescu. Fashion stylist: Nicola Formichetti. Hair: Ursula Stephen. Makeup: Sarah Tanno. Production: Viewfinders.
Normani Kordei Hamilton was born in Atlanta in 1996 and raised in New Orleans, an only child. Her mom and dad worked incredibly hard, and for young Normani, witnessing their work ethic was an early foreshadowing of her own grit and ambition. In the midst of traveling frequently for their jobs, her parents balanced long shifts with keeping Normani enrolled in gymnastics, dance, and later, pageants. When they were away, she was raised by her grandmother, who Normani says is the “real star of the family.” It was in her car where Normani would belt out the words to Tina Turner’s “What’s Love Got to Do With It.” She laughs as she remembers her grandmother’s commitment to her own Tina Turner fandom, like the time she went to a Halloween party dressed as the icon — wig and all. Their intergenerational bond is cosmic: “She’s really my best friend. She’s my soul mate, for real,” Normani says of her grandma.
As a young brown-skinned Black girl in the South, affirming spaces were crucial as they weren’t everywhere in Normani’s orbit. “I grew up feeling beautiful. My mom, my dad, my grandmother instilled in me at a very early age that I was beautiful,” she says, smiling. “The fact that my skin was chocolate was a beautiful thing. My kinky hair was beautiful. I don’t need to straighten it. I can rock my braids to my all-white school.”
Normani’s white classmates doled out microaggressions and racist comments about her skin and hair that she knows would’ve been more detrimental without the encouragement she received from her loved ones.
“I did get bullied a lot. Not feeling like I had that representation at school was very hard,” she says. Eventually, after moving to Houston following Hurricane Katrina and switching schools a few more times, Normani and her parents decided when she was in sixth grade that homeschooling was best for her.
The rejection Normani felt from her peers lingers even now that she’s in her mid 20s. She still has to quell thoughts that tell her she doesn’t belong. To stand out, Normani has given her everything to be the best. “I’ve always felt like the underdog in anything that I’ve ever done,” she tells me.
The stakes are high for Black girls from the day we’re born. We aren’t allotted an infinite number of opportunities to show that we’re talented, and that is coupled with the looming expectation that we be so. There is little margin for our trials and errors. For Normani, who is obviously very gifted, her presence was seen as too strong and, in turn, she has often been disregarded. She has touched success, but the recognition can seem like a farce. Impostor syndrome can override everything that is true and prompt the question: Are the wins real and deserved if you’ve had to work harder than everyone else for the recognition?
The answer is not only in her artist’s résumé, but also in the battles she’s won. At this point in her career, Normani has talked about her negative experiences in Fifth Harmony more times than she should have to. While part of one of the biggest girl groups of the 2010s, she navigated racist trolls, a problematic group member, and the recommendation that she repress her star power to blend in.
“I didn’t get to really sing in the group. I felt like I was overlooked,” Normani says. “That idea has been projected on me. Like, this is your place.”
Historically, the term “pop” has come with the notion that the artist and/or product has been carefully packaged. There must be something highly sellable, an element of mass appeal, along with the ability to traverse styles. But the tides continue to turn as Black female artists attain mainstream status with authenticity and experimentation. Normani checks all the boxes, but she also wants to create outside of those lines.
“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 says. “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!” Period.
Normani’s grateful for the blueprints of the artists who’ve paved the way, but she’s clear about one thing: Her only formula is her work ethic. Normani puts in the hours of an outlier — studying her craft, getting in after-hours rehearsals — and she doesn’t rest until whatever she’s working on is right. “When I show up, I’m ready,” she says. “You can’t point the finger at me”.
Last July, Harper’s BAZAAR published an interview where they celebrated a new era for Normani’s music. They noted that there was one bog obstacle that she has overcome: herself:
“For Normani, her return to the public eye is about more than just the music, though; it's about finding her voice as an artist, a performer, and a woman. While "Motivation" was a bubblegum-pop track that echoed her career beginnings as a member of the popular girl group Fifth Harmony, "Wild Side" showcases a more complex, sensual, and aware Normani. Getting to this point, the singer says, meant getting out of her own head when it came to public expectations of what her music should sound like.
"The new music is a lot darker and edgier sonically," Normani explains. "I think that's just because I grew up listening to a lot of '90s R&B—and I love pop as well—but I think for me, a main goal is really not to be limited [musically] and really wanting to be genre-less. A lot of the music that I've released even before my solo endeavors, I wasn't completely fulfilled. And I always say that this is a rebirth and a chance for me to have a second go-around and do things my way. My main goal is also just to show people that I'm grown now."
PHOTO CREDIT: Greg Swales
Part of embracing a more mature and sexier sound included bringing Cardi B along for the ride. Normani only praises the rapper when asked about her experience collaborating on their new hit.
"[Her support] means everything, because she's been so consistent—since the beginning, to be completely honest. She's such a genuine spirit, and not only do I respect her as an artist and everything that she's had to go through [to get where she is now]," Normani says. "Sometimes people forget that we're human beings and that we've endured a lot. I respect that she knows who she is and she really genuinely believes in me. I was on the phone with her yesterday and the night before, and she was just like, 'You got to be excited! Why are you scared?' Just encouraging me and telling me that I'm that bitch and reminding me of that, because sometimes I tend to forget. Imagine having her as your hype woman!".
Before coming to news of her debut solo album, I want to get to an interview with W. If some of Normani’s songs suggest a more bubblegum sound, her debut album is going to offer something for everyone:
“How would you describe the sound of your next project?
I naturally gravitate toward eerier, darker sounds. Sound selection is my favorite part of the production process, especially when you get in with a producer who is willing to break barriers. We just go in there and play by no rules. I come from a super pop girl group, but I grew up listening to ’90s R&B, which is pretty much what I still listen to every single day. There’s so much space in between, it gives me the opportunity to really play.
Will there be a darker visual aesthetic that goes along with that?
I’m not always as bubblegum as “Motivation” was, or as bubblegum as how people have perceived me to be from looking at that music video. So just imagine the flip side of that. It’s still going to be palatable for a wide audience. Nobody is going to feel left out.
For six years, you were primarily known as a member of the pop girl group Fifth Harmony. But in 2018, you released “Love Lies,” a duet with Khalid, and the following year came “Motivation,” a chart-topping, upbeat single, with a music video filled with ’90s and ’00s pop references. How have you been preparing for your next project, out this summer?
Honestly, 2020 was a tough year for me, because my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer, and I couldn’t travel home to Houston because of Covid. But then I kind of had to shift my perspective and just know that finishing my album really helped her get through it, and helped me get through it.
What do your parents think of the new music you’ve been working on?
Oh my goodness. Honestly, I could put out trash, and my mom and dad would literally be like, “This is a hit, this is a smash, how dare y’all not love it the way we love it.” They swear they are my A&R”.
I think Normani is going to be a music icon of the future. A tremendous talent whose debut album should be stunning, it will be exciting to see how her solo career blossoms. NME featured news of the album at the end of December:
“The news came during Ciara’s stint guest-hosting The Ellen DeGeneres Show yesterday (December 30), when Normani opened up about the challenges she’s faced in making a name for herself outside of Fifth Harmony. “Coming out of a girl group,” she explained, “there was a lot that I had to figure out about myself and fears that I had to deal with head-on.
“I was always so safe being in a girl group. I remember my mom when I was little, she was like, ‘Why do you want to be in a girl group so bad? Is it so you can hide?’ And I think that that was pretty much the answer. But God had other plans for me, and by his faithfulness and his grace… Oh, he’s really, really kept me. Because what we do is not easy, guys, I’m telling you.”
The singer noted that she’s found working on her solo album much harder than it was to mint a Fifth Harmony record, telling Ciara: “I think people really underestimate how hard it is and how much effort we put into one project, one body of work”.
She also touched on the way confidence plays a big role in any release. “When you give your baby out to the world – which is, y’know, our music – that’s the deepest part of me,” she said, “[and] you give people the opportunity to kind of pick it apart and have an opinion on it; but I believe in what I’m doing now, for sure”.
A remarkable talent who is going to be putting out a debut album very soon, I love the work of the awesome Normani. If you have not heard her music or are aware of her talent, then make sure you check her out. I am ending this feature with a playlist of some of her tracks, to show you…
WHAT an amazing artist she is.