Jauregui thrilled to be on her own
On Lauren Jauregui’s forearm, a crucial date — “6.6.18” — is etched in permanent black ink.
The date marks the first time the 22-year-old singer-songwriter performed an entire set as a solo artist, opening for collaborator Halsey on the Latin American leg of her Hopeless Fountain Kingdom tour. That’s where she previewed music from a forthcoming solo debut expected to arrive early next year via Sony Music.
“It was where I realized I can do this and that this was exactly what I was meant to do,” she said. “I got to just be me — giving my energy with songs that I’d written and expressing myself with my choreography and what I wanted to wear. By the end of it, I was crying because it was so powerful.”
Jauregui’s hunger for creative freedom and individuality is familiar to any performer who started off in a singing group — just ask any of the guys from One Direction — and it’s magnified for this singer who came to fame as onefifth of multiplatinum girl group Fifth Harmony.
At 16, she entered the short-lived U.S. edition of “The X Factor” as a solo contestant before she was packaged with four other young hopefuls as a group envisioned by Simon Cowell and then-Epic Records Chairman L.A. Reid.
Fifth Harmony finished third in the competition and took off from there. It sold millions of singles, toured the world, made history as the first girl group to score a top 10 Billboard Hot 100 hit in nearly a decade, scooped up dozens of awards and even performed at the White House.
Yet the ladies struggled for autonomy as their profile rose, the price that often comes with being a manufactured pop entity.
Exhaustion from a breakneck schedule and frustrations over creative fulfillment — members had no say on collaborators or the songwriting — exploded into teary onstage breakdowns, infighting, family feuding and the departure of a member. And Jauregui made headlines when a recording of her tearfully telling her group they were being treated like “literal slaves” was leaked.
Fifth Harmony fought for its independence, repaired its group dynamic and put out a killer album it had control over before going on indefinite hiatus this year to give its members time to pursue solo interests.
Before the group disbanded, Jauregui tested the waters as a solo artist by guesting on tracks from Marian Hill, Steve Aoki and Halsey. Ironically, it was in those collaborations that the singer began feeling comfortable on her own.
But it wasn’t until a session with Khaled Rohaim of production group Twice as Nice late last year where she found her voice, writing what became the first song for her forthcoming project — a soulful number called “Inside” that’s a stark departure from the slinky dance-pop and R&B she did with her former group.
Since then she has been in the studio daily, writing on average a song a day and has logged studio time with Illangelo, Kid Harpoon, King Henry, Ilsey Juber and Alex Hope for her solo debut.
The music Jauregui has been recording is deeply self-explorative, influenced by her Cuban background and diverse musical tastes, although she’s most excited about not being tied down to one particular sound as she’s done being pinned down.