Taken from this week’s Future Pop mailer. Click here to subscribe.
I picked out Lauren Jauregui as the main challenger to Camila Cabello’s post-Fifth Harmony dominance, but Normani Kordei is giving her a run for her money. She released her first solo material last week, and it’s an impressive start – a duet with rising star Khalid from the soundtrack to the new movie Love, Simon. Like Lauren and Camila before her, she’s paving the way for her solo launch with a big name duet. She also gained ‘middle America’ recognition and showcased her performance skills competing on Dancing With The Stars last year. Although she was the last member of the group to release a solo single, she has shared several dance videos, focusing on this strength to differentiate her from her bandmates. She emphasises this again in the video for Love Lies, though it does get a little cringey when she’s going for it and Khalid is just sat casually. Nonetheless, the new video got over a million views in its first day online. Normani is signed to S10 management and Stellar Songs publishing, and has been working with Stargate, Starrah, Tayla Parx and other big names in the pop-R&B lane. It’s rumoured that she also has a deal with Roc Nation, which would explain how she ended up partying with Beyoncé during Grammy season.