Why Fifth Harmony Fell Apart

Fifth Harmony was an American girl group on the rise; comprised of members Ally Brooke, Normani, Dinah Jane, Lauren Jauregui and formerly Camilla Cabello. The girls became breakout stars on the second season of the reality television singing competition, “The X Factor”. With well performing songs such as “Worth It” and “Sledgehammer”, Fifth Harmony seemed to be gaining traction all across the world. However, following Camilla’s departure, the disappointment of the third album and an indefinite hiatus, the future of Fifth Harmony seems unsure. Surely Camilla Cabello wasn’t the thread that kept the fabric of the group intact? However there’s no denying that her pursuing a solo career, as well as the others, only escalated the dissolution of their budding success.

The first thing I’ve seen brought up has been Fifth Harmony’s chemistry and ability to cohesively perform together. While being pieced together by chance in a singing competition doesn’t equate to failure, it can create some challenges. The inability to have authentic connection and collaboration with your group members is a setup for an eventual failure. So this brings us to our first point, which is if the girls of Fifth Harmony actually got along, and performed well together. Did Fifth Harmony have great performances that delivered vocals and stage presence? Absolutely. Their performance of “That’s My Girl” at the 2016 American Music Awards is just one example of this.

That said, there are plenty of examples of a complete lack of organization and seemingly effort with multiple live appearances. It doesn’t matter how many good performances you have, being unable to consistently work together as a unit will stick out over everything. Groups are composed of individuals with different capabilities - some have certain strengths and others have certain weaknesses. This was no different for Fifth Harmony.

Additionally, from the beginning, Camilla was singled out as the front runner for the group - the primary star. If one member out of any group is given that from the get go, I think it opens the door for an inevitable demise. This carries the brunt of why Fifth Harmony fell apart. But before we get into that, let’s continue on with discussing the group as a whole.

Image. What is Fifth Harmony’s image? What do they represent? You can have a catchy song all day long, but if you have no distinct branding or recognizable look, how are you going to stand out? This ties back into each member excelling in different areas. That is what ends up becoming the primary focus to fans and audiences alike. Who is better at what and who could be perceived as dead weight? Who gets the most attention and who is ignored? That ideology isn’t always imminent though. Each member can receive proper recognition, but when one is singled out as the best, others are only noted for certain abilities or not receiving the proper praise, the group as a whole is not being recognized.

One could argue Fifth Harmony was just a crammed together puzzle of soloists. Which as time revealed was the case - every artist pursuing a solo endeavor, with Normani and Camilla earning the most notoriety. We could say following Camilla’s departure, Fifth Harmony became a sinking ship that every girl decided to jump from. This isn’t entirely wrong. We don't know the exact stipulations of each girl's contract, but have some insight into how the other girls were being treated by the industry, likely adding to the hiatus of the group.

While Ally Brooke has expressed her gratitude for her experience in Fifth Harmony, she’s revealed some surprising - or not so surprising, details about what she went through while the group was active. She's stated how those working within their label often made her feel inferior and uncomfortable. That an environment was set up to encourage the girls to be overly competitive, perhaps even hostile, to fight for who got to sing what in a song. Ally revealed that upon the height of the groups’ tension, she approached a male executive for help. Though stating he would help her, his response was to offer her a thong - which brings with it its own connotations.

Lauren also discussed how managers and executives expected the girls to just know how the industry works. There was a lack of mental health resources and she felt they were all taken advantage of.

Normani also opened up, stating she felt her opportunities were severely limited in comparison to the other girls - because - of the color of her skin. Having dealt with discrimination while she was younger, these situations likely instilled doubt in her own self confidence of who she was as a black woman. Upon the leaks of Camilla’s blatant racism and disdain for the other girls in the group, Normani spoke out how hurt she was, believing the group was a safe haven for her to thrive. Not only that, but Normani was additionally met with brutal harassment online during this time as well.

What is so stunning, is Camilla’s leaked messages really give us insight into her belief she was better than the other girls. Knowing this, her departure and early pursuance of a solo career makes perfect sense. If she was feeling this hostile and annoyed and …racist since 2012 / 2013, then I am sure that came across plenty of times to the other members of the group, whether blatantly or passive aggressively or in this instance, in secret. Camilla apologized. To some, this erases everything she said. Frankly, it’s to each their own if she deserves forgiveness, a second chance, what have you. But there’s a difference between sincerely being ignorant, and being blatantly intentional with the words you use.

So as of now, we have gathered that Fifth Harmony didn’t have the most distinct image, issues went on with the label and executives, the girls didn’t have the best relationship with each other, struggled with their own insecurities and didn’t always work cohesively as a unit. This is not to say none of them are talented or none of them are hard workers. The last statement is just an observation and one that has circulated from the very beginning. So this brings us to the biggest point. Camilla’s departure and the construct of Fifth Harmony.

The girls did not have a huge hand at all in creating their work. Look at the liner notes for their album. The most they contributed was with their most recent effort. Is this because they didn’t care for their art? We don’t know. Fifth Harmony’s label apparently shot down most of their creative ideas - wanting to push this sexy and suggestive image on them. Listening to their music, it is plagued with repetitive production that is extremely outdated; only a handful of standout tracks that really offer diversity and allow the girls to showcase their vocal capability.

So given this idea, did Fifth Harmony just show up and perform? If they’re denied their own creative input, they end up checking boxes. Some artists are content to just sing and perform - and that’s totally fine. However, I don’t believe these girls fall into that category. Even if you love performing, these pursuit of solo careers I believe speaks to wanting to create art that is your own, not lyrics or music crafted primarily by other people so you end up being a money making machine. This idea is not brand new, and has been utilized as an abuse of power in the industry since forever, even today.

So this leads us to Camilla’s solo career. From the start, regardless if the label of X Factor judges may have honed in on the other girls at some point, Camilla was given the preferential treatment and attention. There is such a dumpster load of information of “she said this and she meant that”, but I honestly believe that Camilla was not candid with the other girls about her solo career.

And it begs the question if Camilla used Fifth Harmony merely as her own launchpad. This isn’t atypical, but the secrecy and what can be seen as betrayal really can tear people apart. What really set Camilla aside at the start was her friendship with Taylor Swift, especially when Taylor threw a birthday party for her and none of the other Fifth Harmony members were invited. However, the group could have already celebrated together.

Taylor is not to blame for anything, however given this was during the “1989” era, this type of friendship and exposure and potential connections, set Camilla leaps and bounds ahead of the other girls. By 2016; allegedly Camilla had hired her own manager, the other girls tried to restructure their contract, a Fifth Harmony trademark was filed that excludes Camilla, and all their interviews together include palpable, visible and awkward tension. Camila has also already pursued solo collaborations and songs as well. Her solo career is on the rise. Whether you’re team Camilla or Team Harmony, whatever, I think this situation was handled very poorly on Camilla’s end.

Her label also allowed her to do this, just showing that those involved with Fifth Harmony were really only in it for Camilla, however that’s not to say no one cared about the group as a whole, but actions speak louder than words. By Camilla setting off on a solo endeavor while she still belongs to is in the middle of an era, Camilla is ensuring her name will be the one that is known. She is the breakout star, the name in lights. It does take away the spotlight from the others.

What it also does, is leave the other girls helpless. If we go with the idea that executives and the public showed generally more interest in Camilla and were willing to invest in her and re-negotiate her contract so she could leave Fifth Harmony - why would the time, energy and money continually be invested in the group? Claims were made that Fifth Harmony following Camilla’s departure were basically bullying and Camilla had done nothing wrong. I don’t like to inject my personal opinion, but I do believe there was shady business going on behind the scenes.

However, the music industry is about money. If Camilla saw the opportunity for more personalized and financial gain - it would make sense she would take it. And unfortunately, the rest of the group are the ones that suffer. But you have Camilla building budding relationships with Taylor Swift, Shawn Mendes, other collaborators that the other members of Fifth Harmony don’t have.

Camilla by default is defended and the spotlight is on her. Camilla was set up to be a solo star from the beginning, and the other girls have had to work incredibly hard to pursue their own projects. As Camilla’s success rose, Fifth Harmony’s declined. And once you have fan wars get in the mix and huge public eruptions on places like Twitter, I’m sure that just exacerbated any tension and disdain there may have been or that exists between Camilla and her former group.

So what about the other members and what have they been doing since the indefinite and probably disbandment of Fifth Harmony? As stated, each girl has begun to pursue their own solo efforts. However from what I collected, it doesn’t seem the remaining members have any bad blood towards each other for doing so, but I could always be wrong, given it came at a time Fifth Harmony was wavering in their success and commercial potential.

So we have Normani, who has achieved the most notability out of the remaining girls. By late 2017, she had caught the attention of a label executive, recognized for her dancing, vocal ability and stage presence. She had been able to really stay in the spotlight through everything, making music video cameos and appearing on “Dancing With The Stars”. Since then, she’s opened for Ariana Grande on the “Sweetener World Tour”, and had a handful of collaborations - all performing very well. Most recently, “Wild Side”, released last year, peaked at No. 14 on the Hot 100, giving Normani 3 Top 20 hits and 2 Top 10 hits. I think Normani really remained persistent in what she wanted for her career, and took her opportunities at the right time.

I still stand by the fact that Camilla’s pre-mature departure still stole the potential spotlight from the other girls, it’s just how the industry is, but Normani was able to maintain relevance, make smart collaborations and be consistent with her art. Normani has had a debut album in the works for three years now, “Wild Side” being the lead single. The song has received lots of acclaim, so things are only looking up for Normani. But why has this album taken so long - the state of the country and personal matters aside?

She’s stated that she’s just taking her time to find what’s right for her, which is awesome. Given she actually had her vocals left off of one of Fifth Harmony’s songs, has been viciously bullied, dealt with racism from others and was part of a group that may or may not have had any true creative outlet - it makes sense a personal project that is entirely hers would take so much time and consideration.

As for Lauren Jauregui, she’s had notable collaborations that performed variously on the charts. From what I’ve gathered, she still has a dedicated fanbase and has allegedly spoken out about not really striving for that Top 40 success given her feelings of the industry, and is thriving doing her own thing. She however is very outspoken about social issues, specifically LGBTQ+ ones as she identifies as sexually fluid. So with Lauren, we can gather she just wants to curate art that is her own, and isn’t interested in being a huge commercially driven artist. I’ve seen this come from fans, but let me know if I may be wrong, since some feel Lauren was the member who was going to be pushed early on as the star of Fifth Harmony.

Both Ally Brooke and Dinah Jane have had scattered success similar to Lauren. However out of all three, Ally has arguably had the most well performing chart performance. The three of them though have not seen any notable chart placement in a while. Now a general consensus that I found was that some felt that Ally and Dinah were just the “other” girls in Fifth Harmony. Others say Lauren and Dinah fit this bill, stating Ally had more potential but I digress. With Ally having a Spanish record in the works, Dinah released a three song EP.

Now, this brings us all the way back to Camilla Cabello. She is still winning awards, has recently been in the less than favorably reviewed “Cinderella” adaptation and is set to open for Coldplay and perform in Rock in Rio in September of this year. She has relevance.

However, after “Romance”’s less than desirable chart performance and very distinct decline on major charts, we have to wonder what is next for Camilla. What we do understand is she’s pivoted to Latin influenced music. After the success of songs like “Senorita” and “Havana”, this makes sense. This seems like the market that she really thrives in. But with a sophomore slump, a not so critically adored movie, still coming off her racism and blatant disregard for her former group mates, the dissolution of a very speculated PR relationship, there’s only telling what will be in the cards for Camilla once her third album arrives.

I must also say that her very pristine image of this wholesome good girl has been tarnished by everything aforementioned, and I think really allowed her to be turned into somewhat of a meme or joke among a lot of people. I can’t imagine how much of a following she lost following her leaked posts, that were not just one drive by comment, but multiple, one after the other. I won’t even bother diving into her relationship with Shawn Mendes, beyond saying a lot of people felt it was orchestrated, adding this layer of "inauthenticity" to Camilla.

So, Fifth Harmony. Were they successful, adored and amassed fans and praise during their active years? Of course! We just don’t see a ton of new girl groups anymore, Fifth Harmony running parallel to Little Mix as the big girl group now. While the group may have had good times, great music and awesome performances and their efforts should be recognized, the group maybe just wasn’t meant to succeed from the very beginning.

Label executives could have been very dominant, not allowing the girls to have their own creative liberties, as well as giving unfair treatment to certain members and special privileges to others. Fifth Harmony really lacked an established brand or image. Despite having notable hits in their catalog, they didn’t rack up many worthy ones, and that’s not to say there aren’t some deep cuts.

Some perceived them as disjointed many times, and observed clear tension or awkwardness between the girls. Whether all of them wanted a solo career from the start, it’s apparent that Camilla seemingly did. And upon her shenanigans and going behind the groups back, the other four girls were left to flounder; their varying successes honestly I think depending on what order they pursued their solo careers and how aggressively they did so.

I really think their label was disinterested in them the moment Camilla left given the fact she was rewarded over the group, and with Normani really being able to stand out on her own merit, she was fortunate to catch the right attention for her solo endeavor.

Now, the same cannot be said about Lauren, Ally or Dinah - who I don’t think will really maintain anything above an underground following, which is completely fine. I think it is honestly in the labels hands, and we have seen how the label acts.

Fifth Harmony had a lot of potential, as we don't see many notorious girl groups in the industry anymore. However, their label likely looked at them as a money making machine, siphoning out Camila as their most lucrative asset. Without a distinct image and recycled sound, the group wasn't able to stand out very well amongst other performers. Their label very much decided their fate to a certain extent. It's a shame, and we may never know what Fifth Harmony could have been.