Camila Cabello - Unforgettable (2017)

Karla Camila Cabello Estrabao was born on 3 March 1997, and is best known for being a member of the girl group Fifth Harmony, which became one of the best-selling girl groups of all time. She auditioned for the TV talent competition show The X Factor in Greensboro, North Carolina, with Aretha Franklin's 'Respect', but her audition was not aired because the series did not get the rights for the song. After elimination during the "bootcamp" portion of the process in Miami, Florida, Cabello was called back to the stage along with other contestants Ally Brooke, Normani, Lauren Jauregui, and Dinah Jane to form the girl group that would later become known as Fifth Harmony. After finishing in third place on the show, they signed a joint deal with Simon Cowell's Syco Music and Epic Records, and released the EP 'Better Together' to some acclaim (see previous 5th Harmony post here). Two albums followed, with 'Reflection' coming out in 2015, followed by '7/27' the following year. In November 2015, Cabello collaborated with Canadian singer Shawn Mendes on a duet titled 'I Know What You Did Last Summer', a song they wrote together, charting at number 20 in the US and number 18 in Canada, and in 2016 American rapper Machine Gun Kelly released a joint single with Cabello called 'Bad Things', which reached a peak of number four on the US Billboard Hot 100 songs chart. On 18 December 2016, Fifth Harmony announced Cabello's departure, with both sides giving contradictory explanations of the circumstances for her exit. After her departure she appeared on songs from Norwegian DJ Cashmere Cat and rappers Pitbull and J Balvin, and later she announced the future release of her first studio album, at the time titled 'The Hurting. The Healing. The Loving.'. 

Her debut solo single 'Crying In The Club' was released in May 2017, followed by a performance at the 2017 Billboard Music Awards, and then new writing and recording sessions for her album were undertaken following the success of her 'Havana' single, in order to capitalise on it's success. The single became Spotify's most-streamed song ever by a solo female artist in June 2018, with over 888 million streams at the time, and so she wanted the album to go in that musical direction. This postponed the album's original release date, and 'Camila', her debut album, was eventually released on 12 January 2018. It was a pop record containing Latin-influenced songs and ballads, and debuted at number one in the United States with 119,000 album-equivalent units. In April 2018 she embarked on the Never Be the Same Tour, her first headlining concert tour as a solo artist, and by May she was performing as the opening act for American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift in her Reputation Stadium Tour. In October 2018, Cabello announced she would start working on new music in the new year, and in April 2019 it was announced that she would star in an upcoming film adaptation of 'Cinderella', directed by Kay Cannon for Sony Pictures. Because her debut album was drastically revised after the success of 'Havana', a number of songs were dumped from it in order to make room for the new 'Havana'-influenced tracks, and so there were quite a few demos and out-takes left over when it was released. Enough, in fact, to make up a perfectly acceptable companion album to 'Camila', which could have been released shortly afterwards to tide fans over until her next single was released in 2019. 

Track listing

01 Be Right Here
02 Love Life
03 Come When I Call (feat. Pharrell Williams)
04 Must Be Love
05 Cleopatra
06 OMG (feat. Quava)
07 Scar Tissue
08 Curious
09 The Middle
10 Unforgettable
11 Died
12 Thinkin' Bout One
13 Knows Me
14 Witness
15 Just Like You
16 The Boy (feat. Ed Sheeran)

Normani - 1996 (2019)

Normani Kordei Hamilton was born on 31 May 1996, and she rose to fame as a member of the American girl group Fifth Harmony, which became one of the best-selling girl groups of all time. She auditioned for the second season of The X Factor USA in 2012 with a performance of 'Chain Of Fools' by Aretha Franklin that earned approval from all four judges. She was cut during the second round of boot camp, but was invited back to the show to perform as part of a group with Ally Brooke, Lauren Jauregui, Dinah Jane, and Camila Cabello, who later named itself Fifth Harmony, and made it to the finale, finishing in third place. In October 2013, Fifth Harmony released their first EP, 'Better Together' (see previous post here), followed by their debut album, 'Reflection', in 2015, and their second album, '7/27', in 2016. After Cabello's departure from the group in December 2016, Fifth Harmony released their self-titled album as a quartet in August 2017, and Normani became the quartet's de facto leader, leading solos and choreography. Her onstage confidence in the group caught the attention of executive Tunji Balogun, who founded RCA's imprint Keep Cool, and manager Brandon Silverstein, who began working with Normani in late 2017. On 19 March 2018, the group announced their decision to take an indefinite hiatus to pursue solo careers. Before that, from February 2016 through to January 2017, Normani released covers of several songs, including Tory Lanez's 'Say It' and mashups of Drake's 'Fake Love'/'Sneakin'', and Solange's 'Cranes In The Sky'/'Don't Touch My Hair', with the help of producers The Invaders. 

She competed on season 24 of 'Dancing With The Stars' from March through May 2017, alongside her dancing partner, professional ballroom dancer Valentin Chmerkovskiy, and they reached the finals, finishing in third place. In October 2017, it was announced that she'd signed to management company S10 Entertainment as a solo artist, and her duet with Khalid, 'Love Lies', from the soundtrack of the romantic teen comedy-drama film 'Love, Simon' was released the month before Fifth Harmony retired, in February 2018. In April it was announced that Normani had become the first ever artist to sign to Keep Cool/RCA Records, ahead of the release of her debut solo album, as well as signing a modelling contract with Wilhelmina, and a contract with Puma to endorse the brand's RS-0 shoes. In October Normani and Calvin Harris released their EP, 'Normani x Calvin Harris', which features the songs 'Checklist' (with Wizkid) and 'Slow Down', and this was followed by 'Waves' in November, with her album being scheduled to be released in the first quarter of 2019, and its title was hinted to be a number. On 11 January 2019, Normani and Sam Smith released the song 'Dancing With A Stranger', which peaked at number 3 in the United Kingdom and number 7 in the U.S. charts. The song earned her a nomination for Song of the Year at the 2020 Brit Awards, and just one year into her solo career, she became the fastest solo artist (without an album) to surpass one billion combined streams on Spotify. 

In August 2019 she released the single 'Motivation', co-written by Ariana Grande, which was her first truly solo record, without a featured artist. By this time 2019 was almost over, with no sign of her album, and it was announced that it would appear some time in 2020, confirming that it was only a little more than halfway complete. Her next release was when she collaborated with Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj on the song 'Bad To You', for the soundtrack of the 2019 film 'Charlie's Angels', which was released in November. In January 2020, she joined rapper Megan Thee Stallion on the song 'Diamonds', which served as the lead single for the soundtrack of the 2020 superhero film 'Birds Of Prey', and in February she was listed on BET's "Future 40" list, which is a list of "40 of the most inspiring and innovative vanguards who are redefining what it means to be unapologetically young, gifted & black". 2020 passed with still no sign of her debut album, and in July 2021 she released 'Wild Side', featuring Cardi B, which reached number 1 on the Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop chart, and which won her the Best Dance Performance award at the 2021 BET Soul Train Music Awards. In an interview following her win, she was asked if she had a message for her fans, and she responded with "Summer's gonna be lit", referencing when her album will be released. 

In March 2022 she released a new single, 'Fair', and the following month she was announced as the face of Cracker Jill, for which she sang a reimagined version of the song 'Take Me Out To The Ball Game'. The same day she was also announced by Vogue France as the face of AMI Paris' photo campaign for the French brand's L'Accordéon bag. July saw the release of another single with Calvin Harris, Tinashe and Offset, 'New To You', which was taken from Harris's album 'Funk Wav Bounces Vol. 2'. In February 2023, she voiced the character Giselle, a member of the fictional '90s music group The Soul Vibrations, on the second season of the animated Disney+ television series 'The Proud Family: Louder And Prouder', and in August she announced that she'd split with the management company S10 Entertainment, and signed a new management deal with managers Brandon Creed and Lydia Asrat. With another year gone and still no sign of that album, could this be the final straw, as music that she'd originally recorded would now be five years old. As her management seems unable to get their act together and release Normani's first solo album, then it's up to us to do it for them, so here is a collection of tracks recorded in the first couple of years of her solo career, and using the 'number' title that was hinted at way back in 2018. 

Track listing

01 Blessing
02 Motivation
03 1-On-1
04 Runaround
05 Time Waster
06 Last Best Thing (feat. Kiana Lede)
07 Waves (feat. 6LACK)
08 Somebody Else
09 Ride Out
10 Blue
11 Insomnia (Whiskey)
12 Gold
13 Feel Me

Fifth Harmony - Girls Like Us (2016)

After the tour supporting 'Reflection' was complete, Fifth Harmony decamped to the recording studio to begin work on their second album, which was given a provisional release date of 20 May 2016. It was to be named '27/7', after the date that they were formed on The X Factor, and in keeping with this theme of '27', it was later announced that the album's release had been pushed back a week to 27 May. The lead single, 'Work From Home', which featured American singer Ty Dolla Sign, was released in February 2016, and it peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the group's highest-charting single in the United States. As announced, '27/7' was indeed released on 27 May, and debuted at number four on the Billboard 200, as well as achieving their first chart appearances in Japan and South Korea. A tour supporting the record started in June, and covered South America, North America and Europe, with supporting artists Victoria Monét and JoJo. The group's last performance of 2016, and as a quintet, was on the previously taped 'Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve', during which they performed 'Worth It', 'Work From Home' and 'That's My Girl'. On 18 December 2016, the group announced that Camilla Cabello had left, and that the remaining four members would continue as a four-piece. As before, while recording songs for the '27/7' album, they taped more than they needed, and while some were later added to exclusive Japanese pressings of the album, or given away by Napster, others have yet to make an official appearance, so I've added those unreleased tracks to the Japanese and Napster rarities for one last album by the original five-piece Fifth Harmony. They made one further recording as a quartet, with the eponymously titled 'Fifth Harmony' album being released in 2017, but this time they kept a tighter rein on the out-takes, and although we know the titles of some of the rejected songs, most of them are yet to make an appearance online, apart from one solitary track 'Better With You', which I've slotted in here so as not to waste it. On 19 March 2018, the group announced their decision to take an indefinite hiatus to pursue solo projects, so this is the final post from the girls, although out-takes from some of those solo projects will make an appearance in the future. 

Track listing

01 Girls Like Us

02 No Way

03 Feel So Right

04 PSA

05 Voicemail

06 1000 Hands

07 Come Get It

08 Better With You

09 Monies (feat. Tory Lanez)

10 Big Bad Wolf

11 All Again

12 Ladder

Fifth Harmony - High Five (2014)

Following up the success of their debut EP 'Better Together', Fifth Harmony headlined the MTV Artists To Watch concert in January 2014, an annual concert which showcases breakout artists that will be promoted by MTV during the year, and not long afterwards they announced that recording had begun for their full-length debut album with record producers Julian Bunetta, Daylight, Joe London and multi-instrumentalist songwriter Ricky Reed. It was intended to have a more mature sound than 'Better Together', and the lead single 'Boss' appeared in July 7, 2014, peaking at number 43 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart with first-week sales of 75,000. A second single, the Meghan Trainor-penned 'Sledgehammer', was released in October, and became their first top 40 entry on the Billboard Hot 100, but their record company seemed unable to capitalise on this success, and moved the release date of their album back from 16 December 2014 to 27 January 2015. 'Reflection' was ultimately released on 03 February 2015, and entered the Billboard 200 at number five, eventually being certified Gold by the RIAA in February 2016, and several critics did note the group's experimentation with grungy hip-hop and retro R&B that was previously not heard on their extended play. The third single from the album, 'Worth It', featuring American rapper Kid Ink, and was the group's most successful single at the time, reaching number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100, and earning them a triple platinum certification. The album was supported by the group's first major headlining tour, visiting 63 cities in North America and 6 cities in Europe in 2015, and later that year they released 'I'm In Love With A Monster', which was featured in both the trailer for, and subsequent movie of, 'Hotel Transylvania 2'. They ended the year by winning the Group of the Year award at Billboard Women in Music 2015 ceremony, honouring the industry's most influential women. Much like their sessions for the 'Better Together' EP, the group recorded much more material than was needed for 'Reflection', and so we are able to compile a companion album from the left-overs, now cryptically titled 'H5' by 5H. One final addition is a commercial that the group recorded in 2014 for the women's clothing line Candies, which was a specially written song for the ad, and it was so good that I've extended it by repeating the first verse to make it a more acceptable length of two and a half minutes. 

Track listing

01 No Catching Feelings
02 Tellin' Me
03 No Filter
04 High Five
05 Goodbye
06 Change The Bad Boy
07 The Way You Look At Her
08 Sensitive
09 You Gave Me Love

10 Rock Your Candies
11 Too Much
12 Over

Fifth Harmony - Better Together (2013)

In 2012, Ally Brooke, Camila Cabello, Normani Kordei, Dinah Jane and Lauren Jauregui auditioned as solo contestants on the second season of the American TV series The X Factor, and although the latter four failed to progress in the "Teens" category, and Brooke didn't make the "Young Adults" category, they were later brought back and put together to form a five-piece girl group, thus qualifying for the "Groups" category. Initially, the group's name was Lylas (an acronym for Love You Like a Sister), but another group called The Lylas claimed that the show stole their name, so the girls changed their name to 1432 (a colloquial term for I Love You Too). Lead judge Simon Cowell was critical of the new name, and he suggested that the group be renamed again, so after winning a place in the top 12 contestants, a new name was chosen by a public vote, with Fifth Harmony winning out. In the semi-finals stage of the show, the group performed Ellie Goulding's 'Anything Could Happen', and the following night's public vote results advanced the group to the final three, along with Tate Stevens and Carly Rose Sonenclar, but after the first round of the finals they did not receive enough votes from the public to reach the Top Two. About a month after The X Factor season finale in January 2013, Fifth Harmony was officially signed by their mentor Simon Cowell to his record label, Syco Music, and they started recording covers of songs which were uploaded to YouTube, with three of them receiving public praise from the original artists, including Ed Sheeran, Ariana Grande and Mikky Ekko. Their debut single 'Miss Movin' On' was released in July 2013, as the lead from their debut EP 'Better Together', and it peaked on the Billboard Hot 100 at number 76, with the EP following in October and reaching Number 6 on the Billboard 200. An acoustic version and two Spanish versions of the EP, 'Juntos' and 'Juntos Acoustic', were released in November, and the latter two records peaked at number 2 and 12 respectively on the Billboard Top Latin Albums chart. After recording a dozen or so songs for the EP, a number of them were discarded when the final five were chosen to be released, but luckily they have since surfaced online, and if they are slotted back into the running order of the EP you end up with an excellent album, which could have preceded their official debut 'Reflection' the following year. So that's what I've done, and with a revamped version of the EP cover, here is what could have been Fifth Harmony's first full length introduction to the general public who had voted for them on the X Factor. 

Track listing

01 Me & My Girls

02 Better Together
03 No Boys Allowed
04 Try Everything
05 Young & Beautiful
06 Leave My Heart Out Of This
07 Don't Wanna Dance Alone
08 Better Days
09 Miss Movin' On
10 Who Are You
11 Drown On Solid Ground
12 Anything Could Happen
13 One Wish