'Everybody says, 'Oh, well, she should've dropped her album during 'Motivation,' which to everybody from an outside perspective seemed like the perfect time, but for me, I was just coming out of the group and I needed to figure out what I wanted my sound to sound like,' she said. Normani has been teasing her album for a couple of years now and she doesn't plan on releasing it until she's ready. 'I think that's one thing that in the beginning of the process was limiting to me creatively because I'm like, 'OK, is this pop enough? Is this urban enough?' Like, I was really, really putting myself through it and not enjoying and just making good a- music, which for me is the most important.' 'But I try not to focus so much on genre either,' the 'Waves' singer, who grew up in New Orleans before moving to Texas, added. “I do love pop music, but I also grew up listening to, like, Brandy, Monica, Toni Braxton and Destiny’s Child, so it has those influences for sure,' Normani said. That's why Normani's upcoming debut solo album will be a 'hybrid' project that's inspired by a few of her favorite '90s musicians.

After Fifth Harmony, she's been experimenting more with R&B, but she hasn't strayed away from the upbeat party tracks that we know and love her for. Normani's solo music career has definitely shown her fans a different side of her than they've ever seen before. 'I wanted to go in and create like this uptempo record and we ended up with 'Fair,' which couldn’t be any more different.' 'My heart was broke and I was going through it and it’s crazy because this taught me to just really trust the process,' she said. 'I wanted that to reflect on my music,' Normani said.Īnd she wrote the piece from a place of sadness. I try to be the best that I can possibly be and that's pretty much all I can do.'Īs a woman of color growing up, Normani said she always felt 'overlooked' by everyone else, so in order to feel seen, 'even for a second,' she would 'constantly strive for this idea of perfection.' When she made 'Fair,' she realized that it was a way for her to have a 'breakthrough' in her own 'personal growth.' 'Our adversities, our journey is significantly, significantly different. 'Being the only Black girl, I think that our experience, if I'm just being quite transparent is fairly different,' she said. (Blair Caldwell)Īs a solo artist, Normani notes that the challenges she faces in the music industry aren't that very different from the ones she had in Fifth Harmony, where she was the only 'Black woman in a very pop group.' Normani poses for a black-and-white photo in a sexy gown that features her toned midsection.

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