'I'm not sure what that turning point was, but I was like, Normani is enough,' she admits.
Normani is finally coming to terms with the fact that she is, indeed, a star -- and one that deserves to be front and center!
Sporting a pretty pink dress and heart-shaped earrings, the "Motivation" singer covers the "Decembuary" issue of Cosmopolitan. Inside the magazine, she opens up about what it was like launching her solo career after first finding fame with Fifth Harmony on The X Factor in 2012. In addition to Normani, the group originally consisted of Camila Cabello, Ally Brooke, Dinah Jane and Lauren Jauregui.
"I remember always being asked, 'Why do you wanna be in a girl group? So you can hide?'" Normani says. "And that's exactly what I was trying to do."
"I'm not sure what that turning point was, but I was like, Normani is enough," she adds. "You can be onstage and perform and you can be enough."
Normani learned a lot about the industry while in 5H, including the importance of speaking up for herself. She tells the outlet she had a lot of input into the making of her now-iconic, dance-heavy "Motivation" music video, which was released in August and featured nods to Beyonce, BET's classic countdown show, 106 & Park, and more.
"I told the director, 'I want this to be as black as possible,'" the Atlanta, Georgia, native recalls. "I was like, 'Let's show black culture. Why does pop music have to be so white? Why don't we make it a little bit more me?'"
"I know how to work really hard, harder than everybody else," she continues. "If they're putting in five hours, I'm putting in eight."
And she's certainly come a long way from her self-admitted "lifelong shyness." In recent years, she's proved she's a force to be reckoned with... and her star power won't be diminished anytime soon.
"There are a lot of moments where I feel like I have no room to make mistakes," Normani admits. "I could fall down a million times, but that is not enough for me, ever. I'm gonna get back up."
"You'll hear me more when I'm dancing than if we're sitting here having a conversation," she adds. "You'll be able to see me."
For more on Normani, watch the video below.
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