Camila Cabello attends The 59th GRAMMY Awards on February 12, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)
Cuban-American singer Camila Cabello rose to fame as a contestant on the second season of the X-Factor when she auditioned as a solo singer but was put into a group who is now known as Fifth Harmony. The group finished in the top 3 but had the most success outside of the show due to Simon Cowell signing them to his Syco Record Label. Fifth Harmony recorded two EP’s and two official albums, “Reflection” and “7/27.” After selling millions of singles and over 400,000 in album sales, Fifth Harmony member, Camila Cabello is ready to go solo.
During her time in Fifth Harmony, Camila collaborated with artists like Shawn Mendes and Machine Gun Kelly. Fans and her other group members started to realize that she had other aspirations outside of the group. Her solo collaborations have been just as successful as her Fifth Harmony endeavors so it should have been no surprise when Fifth Harmony’s contract was finished she decided to walk away.
1. She Felt Oversexualized.
In an interview with Lena Dunham’s podcast Women of the Hour. Camila who started in Fifth Harmony at age 15 felt like her record label was trying too hard to sexualize the group at a young age. Camila says, “I feel like it’s been tricky because we’ve had to grow into ourselves while being in front of the world and while making songs that did have a lot of sexual undertones.” The Cuban-American singer who sometimes posts bikini pictures on Instagram got a little bit of criticism for this statement. Her advice for young girls entering the music industry is if you feel you aren’t ready to express your sexuality, don’t give into the pressure.
In her three music videos outside of Fifth Harmony, Camila is noticeably more covered up. In “I Know What You Did Last Summer” with Shawn Mendes and “Bad Things” with Machine Gun Kelly, Camila is wearing jeans and long-sleeves. Even in the music video for the more upbeat record “Hey Ma” with Pitbull and J.Balvin, Camila is wearing pants for most of the music video. In most of Fifth Harmony’s videos, the girls are wearing a little less which is part of the reason why Camila felt prompted to leave.
2. Camila Felt She Couldn’t Express Herself Musically.
In an interview with Seventeen, Camila Cabello admitted she was tired of recording pre-written songs that weren’t personal to her own experiences. She goes on to say, “Fifth Harmony wasn’t the maximum expression of me individually.” Cabello promises her fans that her new music will mostly be written by her and will cause her to be brave and open up her soul. Camila told Billboard back in February, “Fifth Harmony is amazing, that we can all come from different places and have different music tastes and have different ideas of what music we would like to make but all come together to be like, ‘OK, this is our sound.’ But at the end of the day, you feel kind of stifled when you can’t completely express who you are without any compromises.”
On her debut album, Camila is rumored to be working with different star producers like Cashmere Cat and Max Martin. It will be interesting to see the sounds and stories she decides to tell. During the album process, Camila has stepped back from social media a bit to focus on just the music.
3. Camila Was Forced to Be in Fifth Harmony.
When X-Factor began all of the members who would soon be in Fifth Harmony auditioned as soloist. None of them thought they would ever be in a group. Their original goals of solo superstardom are still a thing with other Fifth Harmony members like Lauren Jauregui collaborating on a song with Marian Hill and Normani Kordei being on season 24 of Dancing with the Stars with partner Val Chmerkovskiy. Fifth Harmony will eventually break up for good but it’s sad to see Camila be the first to go.
You can watch the video above and see how the girls of Fifth Harmony tell the judges how they want to be stars. Each one of them has no clue about the journey that is in store for them. They sing songs from their favorite artists like Beyonce and work the stage like it’s theirs. None of them auditioned in a group or voiced a desire for this. Of course, when being put into a group none of them turned it down hoping it could be used a platform for their eventual true dream of being a soloist.
4. Rumors of Not Getting Along with the Other Girls.
Rumors have been swirling for a long time before the split that Camila Cabello didn’t get along with the rest of the members of Fifth Harmony. These rumors really took a toll when Camila posted a picture of her recording songs in her hotel bathroom during a trip to Brazil while the rest of Fifth Harmony was downstairs partying with each other. Fans starting separating themselves as Harmonizers and Camiliziers when Fifth Harmony member Normani Kordei struggled to come up with a positive word to describe Camila. During a Facebook Live session, Normani was asked to describe each girl in Fifth Harmony with one word. For each girl she quickly gave compliments but when it was time to describe Camila she gave a long pause and said “She is very um…..quirky.” The lines were drawn.
No one in Fifth Harmony has denied the rumors, instead always would post cryptic tweets and admit in interviews that they do have their issues. In an interview with People Magazine, Fifth Harmony member Lauren Jauregui had this to say when asked about how five female personalities get along with each other: “naturally, it’s going to be difficult.”
5. She Was Becoming More Successful Than the Other Members.
Since the very beginning of X-Factor, Camila stood apart as a star from her other Fifth Harmony members. Even X-Factor judge Demi Lovato made this clear when after a lackluster performance singled Camila out as the only one who performed well and said they all had something to learn from her. After the show, Camila’s star power continued as her social media following is far bigger than her other members. For example, Camila’s Instagram followers is at 9.7 million whereas Normani Kordei’s Instagram followers sits at 2.7 million. Her talent and quirky personality have made her friends with the likes of Taylor Swift and Selena Gomez.
When her first solo endeavor was announced – a duet with Candian singer Shawn Mendes, fans took to Twitter saying it was going to flop. However, it has done the opposite with peaking at number 20 on Billboard’s Hot 100 and selling over 1 million copies. Her collaboration with Machine Gun Kelly has peaked at number 5 on Billboard’s Hot 100 and has gone platinum as well. Her record sales have done the same numbers Fifth Harmony songs have so it makes you wonder if people supported the group for Camila or the other girls.
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