In a new interview, the 'Love Lies' singer reveals that her Fifth Harmony bandmates tried to help her deal with the issue, but they didn't have 'the tools.'
- Jan 11, 2019
AceShowbiz - Being the only person of color in Fifth Harmony has apparently taken a toll on Normani Kordei's self-confidence. The "Love Lies" singer addressed the topic of racism and finding her own identity in a new magazine interview, and revealed her internal struggles as a member of the popular girl group.
Featured in the new issue of Billboard magazine, the 22-year-old singer opened up about how her sense of insecurity heightened. "It was a subconscious thing," she explained. "You think, 'Why am I the least followed in the group?' Even if you don't recognize that you're paying close attention to it, it takes a toll on your confidence. You worry - is it me? Is it because I'm black? Or am I just not talented?"
Normani's anxiety was not without reason. She was assigned to solely sing the background vocals of "No Way". She also received racial messages and death threats in 2016 after Camila Cabello's fans accused her of shading their idol during a Facebook Live interview. Her background as one of just three black students in her elementary school didn't help either.
"The X Factor" alum admitted that she quickly sensed the other girls caught people's attention easier than she was. "It was like, 'Hey, I'm also here, and I'm really good at what I do. I worked just as hard. I feel like I have to work 10 times harder just to prove to everybody that I also deserve to be here,' " she recalled.
Despite what she's been through, Normani bore no ill feeling for her band members. In fact, she credited them for trying to help. "They tried to be there for me as best as they could," she noted, before adding, "But I don't think they had the tools that they needed, because it's not their experience. I can give them credit for trying to be there for me, but at the same time... The girls don't experience things the way I did."
Now, the "Dancing With a Stranger" singer felt a sense of responsibility to encourage people like her to raise their voice to be heard. "There's so much that I have to get off my chest," she mused. "And there's a responsibility I have as a black woman - one of the very few to have the power to kill it. Even in the mainstream, there's not many of us. Especially chocolate girls. Like, being African-American is one thing, but girls [with] my complexion is unheard of."
