The Top 10 Solo Songs From Fifth Harmony
Can you believe 2016 was already seven years ago?
Over the years “Summer Sixteen” has been reminisced and meme-fied to hell and back, often looked back on as the last true summer and year of happiness. In the midst of big albums like Lemonade, Views and Dangerous Woman, an unsuspecting force was about to make their splash onto the charts. I am of course talking about (in)famous girl group Fifth Harmony.
Created on Simon Cowell’s reality competition show, The X Factor (U.S.), Fifth Harmony was a diverse five member pop girl group. Formed while they were all teenagers, prior to 2016, they had already scored hits like “Sledgehammer” and “Worth It'', but their biggest song to date came about with “Work From Home”. The double entendre filled song and video was an immediate smash, took over the radios and shot up the profiles of Normani Kordei Hamilton, Lauren Jauregui, Dinah Jane, Ally Brooke and Camila Cabello. Yet, it seems like as fast as they rose to the top, it ended in a flash.
Camila left the group at the end of 2016 to pursue a solo career and Fifth Harmony’s final album in 2017 was met with little fanfare or commercial success.
In early 2018, they officially announced the indefinite “hiatus” of the group.
As a casual Fifth Harmony fan back at that time, I could admit the group made several bops but it was hard to look past the disastrous and uncoordinated live performances, (seriously why name a group that if they struggle with basic harmonies), messy red carpet fashion and rumored behind the scenes dysfunction. But I still had a soft spot for them and was looking forward to what their solo careers would have to offer.
Five years later and the solo careers of every former Fifth Harmony member have… varying degrees of success to say the least. So here’s a ranking of the top 10 solo songs from ex-5H members. Ideally I would’ve done this ranking with a bigger pool of entries but alas Camila is still the only one to release a full body of work to date (three albums at that!)
10. Havana
The youngest and first to leave Fifth Harmony, Camila always had a headstart compared to the rest of girls and rumors of record label favoritism stained her career even before she departed the group. She released two hit collaborations while still in 5H but it was 2017’s Havana that truly solidified her. A simmering Latin pop love song, it could’ve fallen into cliche territory but manages to stay light and flirty, perfect for radio and summer parties.
9. Expectations
The best debut song from any Fifth Harmony member, Lauren’s “Expectations” paints a vivid picture of a frustrated woman talking to her uninterested lover. Her pre-debut collaborations stayed more in the alternative and pop realm so it was a surprise to hear Lauren’s distinct, raspy voice on such a slinky R&B song, but it felt kismet. The biggest highlight is the slow electrifying guitar solo on the bridge.
8. Lips Don’t Lie
The opening piano keys on this cheeky song are addicting. Ally is clearly looking to recreate a early 2000s vibe with the Shakira reference in the title and the interpolation of Busta Rhymes’ and Mariah Carey’s “I Know What You Want” and it works well in a song that doesn’t sound too cheesy with fun lyrics to sing along to for a girls night.
7. Fix It
Dinah finds herself going the nostalgic R&B route as well, in this deep cut from her first EP. The chorus in “Fix It'' is simple yet effective, Dinah does her best Beyoncé impression and wails “fix it” several times as she pleads and begs for a solution to mend an already dead relationship. The monologue in the bridge sounds right out of Ciara or Janet’s playbook and the outro recreates the glorious sound of the church choir. The one knock is that this song is poorly mixed and mastered and it’s hard to get past the muffled sound every time you play it on Spotify.
6. Falling
Lauren scores one of Timbaland’s best productions in years in this R&B slow burner. The muttering voices in the background gives the song a clear 90’s sheen to it but doesn’t bog itself down too much in the past to deliver a hypnotic sounding song. The production and understated vocals are so good, it’s easy to ignore the weaker lyricism going on here (seriously the falling and catching metaphor is a bit overdone).
5. Higher
I can’t help but think if someone like Dua Lipa had sang this exact song it wouldn’t have gone so under the radar. Ally has a bigger voice and range than most of the current singers in the dance pop landscape and man does she use it to her advantage. The pulsating beat as post-breakup Ally sings her way on to a European club dancefloor is infectious and catchy as hell. Any former Harmonizer could also tell you it’s ironic that she ended up making such good dance music considering she always had two left feet during performances.
4. Senorita
In 2015 Camila and Canadian teen heart throb, Shawn Mendes released a collaboration, “I Know What You Did Last Summer”. A moderate sized hit, it reached top 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was the beginning of Camila’s solo endeavors. Camila and Shawn reunited four years later for this smash love duet. “Senorita” is a sultry Latin pop song about unfettered desire and it somehow works so well. In 2019 this song was racing up the charts, unlike their last outing together, this time they were in a highly publicized relationship. Anyone on social media that year probably saw all the rumors and memes that they were dating just for the PR and hey, maybe it worked because this song now has 2 billion streams on Spotify.
3. Motivation
Normani spent most of 2018 making slower paced R&B and pop songs so it came as a surprise when in the summer of 2019 she released the absolute banger that is Motivation. It felt like especially at that time there weren’t that many up-tempo songs on the radio, so Motivation was a breath of fresh air. The highlight in the song are the horns in the background that Normani added as a nod to her New Orleans background.
2. Wild Side
Normani returns again with this 2000s inspired R&B track. With an interpolation of Aaliyah’s “One In A Million” serving as the base for this song, Wild Side is a sexy, fun triumph. It would be impossible to listen to this and not sing along to the fun “doot doot doots”, rap along to Cardi B’s bold verse or recreate the ad libs in the outro of the song. One of the best music videos of recent memory too.
1. La Buena Vida
As all the former Fifth Harmony members progress on their musical journeys, you can tell that they’re still figuring out their sound and what works for them. On Camila’s third album, Familia, she finally achieves what many artists struggle to do. Making a song only she could do.
An underrated deepcut on the album, “La Buena Vida” has Camila tapping into her Latin side once again, but instead of opting for a more radio friendly pop or reggaeton sound, she brings out an inventive mariachi fusion sound that nods more specifically to her Mexican heritage. The production on this song is excellent and paired with the relatable story in the song about a woman dissatisfied with her flaky lover. It all comes together at the end with sublime mariachi chanting and a frenetic guitar.
As a former Fifth Harmony fan, it’s hard to fully break away from these women even five years later. As of right now, the only person to release a full album is Camila while Ally, Dinah and Lauren have already left their initial record labels. Will we see more music and a return to commercial success from these women? Or maybe a reunion is in the future?
There’s certainly an open spot for more girl groups outside of K-pop.
While I don’t have the answers, I will still listen to whatever good music Fifth Harmony releases, together or apart.