Is Normani being sabotaged by her label?
WHEN Normani released her debut single Motivation in August 2019, complete with a music video that paid homage to the early 2000s pop culture, the song went viral.
Videos of fans doing the choreography and re-creating the looks from the video flooded the internet.
Normani’s name was on everyone’s lips and she was primed as the next pop princess, who was able to dance and sing equally well. And even though she was the second member from Fifth Harmony to go solo, the video, on top of a stellar showing at the MTV VMAs, set her up to take over the pop space. But, she vanished.
While there were more live performances of the song, there were no other singles in sight and no clear roll-out for her debut album.
Despite being on the Savage X Fenty runway and making appearances on shows, it seemed that music was pushed to the side.
Fans were asking what was going on, but received no information, with some even catching a swift block on Twitter for inquiring.
Normani’s future was still hazy with the occasional post of her in-studio, which only angered fans more since it started to look as if new music was nowhere in sight.
Cue February 2021, and we finally get a teaser of Wild Side. Once again, after the initial teaser clip, she went silent until July when she released the song.
In the meantime, history repeated itself as she was the talk of the town for Wild Side for her striking visuals and eye-catching choreography – Sean Bankhead is the hardest working choreographer in Hollywood right now – and it had a Cardi B feature.
This song looked set to climb the charts and set Normani up to take the pop princess throne.
However, casual fans were divided on the midtempo R&B song and it mysteriously disappeared from Apple Music for a while. And beyond the initial release weekend, there was no promotion with regards to any live performances and widespread interviews.
More recently, she revealed online that she’s not been booked for this year's MTV Video Music Awards.
This begs the question, is Normani being sabotaged by her label and team?
The singer is signed to Keep Cool, a subsidiary of RCA Records.
When it comes to managing female artists, RCA has a history of not treating them well, with Tinashe being a famous case in point.
After years of difficulties, the two parties had a public falling out, with the label seemingly trying to turn Tinashe into a Beyoncé clone, then an Aayilah clone on Joyride, her third album, with that project falling flat.
Since parting ways with the label, she is regaining the exposure she lost with Songs For You and 333 being well-received, and her fans happy to have her back to making the music she wants to.
Normani seems to be in a similar predicament with her solo singles under-performing and not getting support from RCA at all.
Normani’s appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon was allegedly cancelled; it’s unclear if it was the show or her team.
And the only live performance of Wild Side has been one TikTok video of her at a Don Julio event in front of a small crowd.
By how things are going, it seems as if things aren’t gelling well behind the scenes with her and the team tasked to work with her.
While Normani has been touted as the next “it girl” on the pop scene, if something isn’t done to make that happen soon, she will be left in the dust come 2022.