On March 19th one of the biggest all girl pop group announced it’s indefinite hiatus. It reminded a lot of fans of One Directions break ups back in 2016, as both groups splits happened after one member left the group. This comes as a big shock mainly because the group has split just after their career as a group was starting to take off following the success of not only their world tour, but their highly successful self titled 2017 album which not only debuted at number 4 on the Billboard charts but sold 46,000 copies in its first week, becoming Fifth Harmony’s fourth top ten entry and third top five entry. It also debuted within top ten in several countries, including Canada, New Zealand, Ireland, United Kingdom, Mexico and Spain, where the album entered at number three and one respectively in the latter two countries.
In an interview with Playboy magazine Lauren Jauregui opened up on the break up of the group saying “We tried our best to be ourselves,” she said, “[but] we were also adolescents. So, you have to think about who you were at that age and being thrown in front of cameras. When you’re really disconnected from who you are and you’re ashamed of it, you can write and tell a story, but you can never really tell your story. That’s what separates a lot of artists from others — the connection”. With this in mind you can only come to the conclusion that the girls felt they could no longer grow individually while still being in a group.
Jauregui did reveal she has plans to release a solo album but will be much different to what we heard by her with Fifth Harmony, “Right now, I’m just exploring myself and getting in touch with myself creatively,” she said. “It’s definitely different than my work with Fifth Harmony. It’s me.”
Fifth Harmony announced their split through social media taking to there Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to state the following; After six years going hard, non stop, we also realized that in order to stay authentic to ourselves and to you, we do need to take some time for now to go on a hiatus from Fifth Harmony in order to pursue solo endeavors. We are all very excited and grateful to be able to take this time to learn and grow creatively and really find our footing as individuals. In doing this we are allowing ourselves to gain new experiences, strengths and perspectives that we can bring back to our Fifth Harmony family.
Normani Kordei another member of the group has also been working on a solo career already releasing a collaboration with Khalid called “Love Lies” which was featured on the soundtrack to the film “Love, Simon” and also made it onto out ‘Hit List’. Kordei said in a recent interview that her new solo album will mostly be about the things she’s experienced over the last six years saying “Honestly, I feel like I’ve experienced a lot in the last six years,” she said, “so I feel like just getting all of that out.” She continued, “Whatever comes to mind, whatever I’m going through at the moment, I just want this to be an album that completely represents who Normani is—and for some people, it may be the first time.”
Fifth Harmony member Brooke Hernandez also took the solo leap of faith releasing her first solo single, “Perfect,” in January. Dinah Jane was the only member of the group who didn’t release solo music. “Sometimes, when you sing someone else’s song over and over again, or songs that have been given to you, you’re afraid to go out there and write one yourself,” she told Flaunt magazine in January. “You start to question, ‘Well, I don’t know if my music will be as perfect as these songs I’m given.'”
While Fifth Harmony’s career was short lived, I am for one thankful I got to experience their music and as sad as it is to see them depart I hope we get to see them flourish in solo succession.
