Fifth Harmony’s highs and lows – from their beginnings on the X Factor to that Camila Cabello drama
After six years together as a band, Fifth Harmony have confirmed their split (or at least their ‘indefinite hiatus’) with a heartfelt and fan-dedicated explanation on Twitter.
Lauren Jauregui, 21, Ally Brooke, 24, Dinah Jane, 20, and Normani Kordei, 21 told Harmonisers on Monday: ‘Reflecting on the past six years since we started on X Factor, we’ve realised just how far we’ve come and we appreciate everything so much, more now than ever.
As the band themselves wrote in a statement, their career as one of the world’s biggest girlbands as been a ‘wild journey’, with humble beginnings on the X Factor all the way through to some of the most cut-throat popstar drama in recent history.
There’s definitely been some extreme highs and shocking, headline-worthy lows for Fifth Harmony over the years, so buckle up and prepare yourself for ‘one hell of a memorable journey’ straight from the world of 5H. Best enjoyed with a soundtrack of the greatest hits, obviously.
2012: The X Factor
Ally Brooke, Camila Cabello, Normani, Dinah Jane and Lauren Jauregui first burst onto our screens via the 2012 season of X Factor having never met before. After they failed to make it to the next round in the Teens and Young Adults categories, the judges threw them a lifeline by bringing them together to form a five-piece girl group.
Demi Lovato, LA Reid, Britney Spears and Simon Cowell all saw the potential in the vocalists, and an acoustic performance of ‘Impossible’ saw them sail straight through to live shows.
Eventually, the band were booted off the show in third place – but anyone who knows anything about a little band called One Direction knows that third is the best X Factor position to finish in.
November 2012: Finding their name
Would we still be writing this about an iconic girl group if 5H had stuck with their first name, Lylas? As in, an acronym for Love You Like A Sister? Almost definitely not.
It didn’t take long until another group called The Lylas claimed that one, so instead they became 1432. As in, a phrase that means I Love You Too. Sigh.
Eventually, after Simon Cowell told them that their really name had to go, the public were given the chance to name the band and settled on the much more sensible Fifth Harmony. Thank Christ for that.
October 2013: ‘Miss Movin’ On’
Having turned themselves into household names on the X Factor, the band kicked off their success by uploading covers onto YouTube before eventually signing to Simon Cowell’s record label, Syco Music.
In October 2013, Fifth Harmony finally shared their debut extended play with lead single Miss Movin’ On, giving them their first chart success. It peaked on the Billboard Hot 100 at number 76, the highest charting single from a The X Factor contestant to appear on the chart.
The song was certified Gold in the United States for selling 500,000 digital downloads and streams combined.
March 2015: ‘Worth It’
After a few delays in production, the girls’ debut album Reflection was finally unveiled in February 2015, and after the release of ‘Boss’ and ‘Sledgehammer’ came the big one – ‘Worth It’.
The banger became the group’s most successful single so far, peaking at number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 and earning the group a triple platinum certification thanks to some help from a performance on the Dancing With The Stars finale and Jimmy Kimmel Live. No biggie.
2015/2016: A jam-packed trophy cabinet
It’s not just bop-worthy, worldwide chart toppers that Fifth Harmony have managed to nab over their six years as a band.
The fierce fivesome also managed to scoop a full selection of awards including American Music Awards, iHeartRadio Music Awards, MTV Awards and Peoples Choice Awards.
With the help of their predominantly young and dedicated fanbase known as Harmonisers, 5H consistently proved to be particularly popular when it came to Teen Choice Awards and Nickelodeon Awards, too. That’s one jam-packed trophy cabinet.
March 2016: ‘Work From Home’
Just when you thought that there was no floor-filler greater than ‘Worth It’, it was time to grab a hard hat and turn up the volume on Fifth Harmony’s biggest single to date, ‘Work From Home’.
The single peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100 and became the group’s highest charting single ever, while reaching the top 10 in twenty-two other countries including number 2 in the UK.
‘Work From Home’ also went down in history as the first top-five for an all-female group in almost a decade. Slay.
April 2016: Trouble in paradise
However, after three supporting and seven headline tours, cracks were beginning to emerge in the band and it definitely didn’t go unnoticed by their passionate fans.
Camila released a successful collab with Shaun Mendes, ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’, and just a few weeks later the band shared an Instagram from the recording studio – sans Cabello.
Not a good sign, and even more worryingly, this proved to be a recurring theme in several band photos. Gulp.
August 2016: The Normani/Camila Facebook moment
The first real speculation that tension was brewing came after a Fifth Harmony Facebook Live went viral in the Harmoniser community.
Normani sparked an online frenzy when asked to say something nice about each of her fellow 5H-ers. She seemingly struggled before addressing Cabello, saying: ‘She is … let’s see. Camila. Very quirky. Yeah… Very quirky. Cute.’
Awks. The comment sparked huge backlash from the fandom (it’s probably an understatement to say that all hell broke lose), which became so intense and hateful that Normani was forced to delete her social media for a while.
September 2016: Lauren’s ‘No Way’ breakdown
Just days after Camila had previously walked off stage mid-song during a concert in Missouri, blaming anxiety for her early departure, Lauren was the next member of Fifth Harmony to seemingly have a breakdown.
While Lauren knelt on the floor and covered her face from the crowd, Normani came to her side and she kneeled on the stage floor while a crowd full of confused fans cheered in encouragement.
The following day, the singer explained that the lyrics had ‘just made me extra emotional.’ Whatever the reason, tensions were clearly running high behind the scenes.
September 2016: Cancelled tour dates
Some blamed broken friendships amongst the girls and others called for management to give the band a much-needed break.
But whatever the real reason for a step back, it was kept on the DL when Fifth Harmony cancelled the last four concerts on their 7/27 album tour without explanation.
This was quickly followed by another five, mysteriously chopped dates in Europe. With no info provided, fans were left confused and disappointed by the decision.
October 2016: Simon Cowell makes everything even more awkward
You know it’s reached breaking point when even Simon Cowell’s calm and collected exterior slips a little.
Quizzed by The New Music Buzz on what was really going on, the brains behind the band replied: ‘Same with any group. We have conversations about what they want to do, we’ve got to listen to them. It’ll be fine… I hope.’
Nothing like a Cowell grimace and a shrug to give fans the vote of confidence.
December 2016: Camila’s departure
And hey, quel shock. At exactly midnight on December 19 2016 (the day that Camila’s contract was complete, according to Billboard), Fifth Harmony published a statement on Twitter confirming that Camila Cabello had left the band.
While it seemed straight forward at first glance, Camila later released her own version of events on social media, claiming she was blindsided by Fifth Harmony’s announcement. She also claimed their version of events didn’t match up with her own.
Camila claimed: ‘The girls were aware of my feelings through the long, much needed conversations about the future that we had… Saying that they were just informed through my representatives that I was “leaving the group” is just not true.’
December 2016: The plot thickens
Of course, tdeparture drama didn’t end there. In a second statement (what a time to be alive), Fifth Harmony clapped back: ‘Over the past several months we have consistently made every effort to sit down and discuss the future of Fifth Harmony with Camila.
‘So no, after months of rejection from her and her team, these supposed lengthy conversations in fact never happened, although we pleaded.
‘We have tried with exhausted efforts and hearts to keep this group alive as the five of us, and we want it to be very clear that unfortunately those efforts are not mutual.’
The burns were third degree all round.
Becoming a four-piece
Looking more gorgeous than ever in matching red dresses that may as well have had ‘Camila who?’ written across the front, the band made their debut four-piece photoshoot just five days after her curtain call.
Kinda like the first post-break up selfie of any broken relationship, it was intense and involved big hair.
A week later and their debut red carpet appearance follows for the Peoples Choice Awards, where all of the girls look thoroughly unbothered by recent events in co-ordinated pale pink. It’s just the girlband way.
August 2017: That VMAs performance
Just in case it wasn’t clear that Fifth Harmony and Camila Cabello were not on good terms, that VMAs performance happened. Y’know, the one where they figuratively and literally threw her off the stage.
No seriously, they did.
Fifth Harmony shed their fifth performer like a snake sheds its particularly unwanted skin, before proudly performing ‘Down’ and ‘Angel’ as a four-piece band. THE SHADE.
March 2018: An indefinite hiatus
And that’s it.
Having cancelled yet more upcoming tour dates, on March 19, Fifth Harmony took to Twitter to confirm that, amongst endless speculation and the news that four solo record deals had been secured, the girls would be going on an ‘indefinite hiatus’ to focus on individual music careers.
5H wrote: ‘After six years going hard non-stop, we realise that in order to stay authentic to ourselves and you, we need to take some time for now to go on a hiatus from Fifth Harmony in order to pursue sole endeavours.’
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