Normani Kordei feels like her true self since becoming a solo artist.
The Fifth Harmony star – who is gearing up to release her debut solo album – has opened up about the road to "self-discovery" she has been on following the girl group – also comprised of Lauren Jauregui, Ally Brooke, and Dinah Jane – announcing their hiatus in March, and how she feels like she can achieve anything her "heart desires" now the creative control is in her hands.
She told the September issue of L’Officiel magazine: "Honestly, I’ve had self-discovery and really been able to get the opportunity to know myself in ways that I hadn’t been able to before.
"Recognising who I was in that entity of Fifth Harmony [is] somebody totally different than who I am now – being able to be in a recording studio and freely talk about whatever it is my heart desires.
"There’s nothing that I can’t do now. I want to be able to do everything, so by the end of this project, I know that I put my absolute all and put my whole self into it.
"For anybody to be able to listen to this body of work, or even look at me as a young Black woman and say, ‘I see myself in her.’
"And just to put it all out there and be as honest as possible throughout the process."
Normani previously admitted it would be an "adjustment" going solo but that she was very "excited" to let people know who the real Normani is.
She added: "It’s definitely going to be an adjustment. It’s all I’ve known for the last six years, but I’m excited … It’s a discovery for myself, you know? There are so many people that are excited for me, trying to see, ‘Oh, what is she gonna do next? ‘What does Normani sound like?’ I’m still trying to figure that out … I’m in the studio and its really cool because I talk about things that I actually wanna talk about and things that I feel genuinely, and I can finally fully be myself. I feel like, within the group, I’m so, so grateful for the process but I can speak for all of us, you’ve only been able to see a fraction of who we are individually."
Normani Kordei’s road to self-discovery
