Camila Cabello was inspired to audition on ‘The X Factor USA’ by One Direction.
The 20-year-old singer tried out on Simon Cowell’s Stateside talent show back in 2012 and after impressing with her vocal talents she went on to become part of girl group ‘Fifth Harmony’ – also comprised of Ally Brooke, Normani Kordei, Dinah Jane and Lauren Jauregui – before quitting in 2016 to pursue a solo career.
Camila – who was born in Eastern Havana, Cuba, but moved to Miami with her family at the age of five – admits she would have never have pursued her pop dream if it wasn’t for her love of the 1D boys, who were created on the UK version of ‘The X Factor’ in 2010.
Speaking to NPR Radio, she revealed: "I saw this video of One Direction, and I was a huge One Direction fan. They were giving tips on how to audition for ‘X Factor USA’. But there was an audition in North Carolina, and that was super close to Miami, and … I just wanted to give it a shot. It was just these five seconds of bravery that changed my life, you know?
In Latin culture, we have this thing called a quinceañera. But instead of a quinceañera, I wanted my 15th birthday present to be for my parents to drive me to North Carolina so that I could audition. I think that my parents would be supportive of anything that I did. If I was like, ‘Oh, I really want to be a dentist today, and not pursue this as a career,’ they would be totally fine with it. I think they just saw how much I wanted it."
Since going it alone, Camila has achieved huge success with her single ‘Havana’, featuring Young Thug, becoming a global smash and her self-titled debut solo LP has topped the iTunes album chart in over 100 countries.
Camila admits she always dreamed of being a solo star and had been writing songs since she was 16.
She said: "I had been writing songs since I was 16, and at first I wanted to write for other people. [But] I had these songs that were so personal … and I couldn’t imagine me giving it to somebody and somebody else singing them because it was too close to me. I went a long time writing songs thinking that, ‘Nobody will ever hear this for another 10 years because I’ll still be in the group.’ I made the decision to go out on my own and start expressing myself and my vision, because that’s what made me come alive … I’m just really being myself. I am in a great place where I have all of the control and I don’t do anything that I’m not super stoked about doing, you know?"
Camila Cabello says One Direction inspired her pop dream
