Before Normani would clock in 4.5 Million followers on Instagram and pose for pics alongside
Before Normani would team up with 6lack, Khalid, Quavo, Jessie Reyez, Calvin Harris & more.
Before Normani would take the cue that it was time to exit Fifth Harmony and a make
a name for herself all on her own.
As a member of Fifth Harmony Normani kinda blended in with the crowd but man did she
show up with her music video for Motivation – in there she paid tribute to J Lo, Beyonce,
Britney Spears, Ciara & more... and for a white boy like me the video got me all hot
and bothers, not gonna lie. The girl has been practicing long and hard, an award winning
dancer and gymnast who recorded her first single when she was only 13 years old. She
would go onto compete in beauty pageants before her big debut on X Factor but her family life
almost fell apart before all this happened, dad got booked on drugs and the entire family
nearly lost it all during Hurricane Katrina. Now a day's Normani is generating like a Hurricane
all on her own if you know what I mean.
What's going on guys? It's your boy Michael McCrudden hitting you with another Before
They Were Famous, this time on Normani. A few other drops include Light Skin Keisha
and we have done City Girls and Saweetie earlier this summer. Hot Girl Summer, no doubt about
it! As always we need suggestions from you guys on who to do next so sound off in the
comments down below and I'll see you after the intro. Let's roll the old intro for old
times sake – I actually kinda miss it.
Normani Kordei Hamilton was born on May 31st, 1996 in Atlanta Georgia to parents Derrick
and Andrea Hamilton. Normani has previously revealed that her mom was diagnosed with cancer
when she was 6 years old but I'm happy to report mom made a full recovery.
Awkward video but hey, it was a celebration. When asked by Rolling Stone on how her parents
met, Normani explained: They met when my dad was in college. My dad’s younger than my
mom. He went to Georgia Tech, and she was a flight attendant, and she was traveling,
but one of her girlfriends knew my dad. She was trying to set them up on a blind date
for the longest time, but that never happened. Then one night they were both at a club, the
same place at the same time, and then that was it.
She has two older half sisters named Ashlee and Arielle Hamilton. She's shared a few touching
posts on IG doting on her dad and great grandma.
You're the flyest cold stone creamery date that a girl could ask for. You've always supported
my decision making when it came to all eleven of my piercings. (total shade to my mother)
lmao You're my whole world.
The other reads: I'm grateful to be your great granddaughter and I'm blessed to have been
able to watch you make 100 years of age just as you always wanted to do.
100, damn, black certainly don't crack! The family didn't stay in Atlanta for long with
Normani spending her early years in New Orleans where she attended Trinity Episcopal School
enrolled in dance, gymnastics and beauty pageants as
a child. She was a natural performer and all seemed to going well until Hurricane Katrina
hit!
That clip was in jest but Hurricane Katrina was no joke! Her family home sustained a lot
of wind damage and was no longer liveable, in fact the whole family had to be evacuated.
Normani told People magazine: “I mean, there were bodies floating around.
It was like my childhood, everything that I knew, all my memories, gone.”
In 2005 the family were forced to move to Pearland Texas on the outskirts of Houstan.
The next year her dad was arrested for possession of cocaine. The police report from the Pinellas
County Circuit Court, revealed that daddy Derrick had been discovered with “an off-white
flaky substance…in the driver’s side of a 1991 black Chevrolet Tahoe.” Luckily for
Normani and her family, Derrick ended up not being prosecuted for the crime. He did learn
the hard way that Texas cops don't mess around. Growing up Normani was a massive fan of both
Beyonce and Nicki Minaj. Queen Bee is obviously her muse but she had this to say about Nicki:
“She is responsible for the majority of my childhood, and the influence that she had
on me growing up — being that female that we’ve had over the course of the last 10
years or so, just really dominating.”
She has since met both her idols and even got a shout out from Nicki Minaj at the VMAs.
Normani wasn't ready for hip hop just yet and was mostly singing gospel music recording
her first single at the age of 13. Not much is know about Normani's years in Texas – her
family lived in the out skirts of Houston in a town known as Pearland.
In 2012, at the age of 18 Normani was crowned Miss Teen Clearkale finished 6th for Miss
Texas 1st place all around fitness.
This was the same year she auditioned for the 2nd season of X Factor performing Chain
Of Fools by Aretha Franklin. She impressed all four judges made the move to boot camp
and then was eliminated but as the story goes – she was brought back and put into a group
with four other girls.
Fifth Harmony would go on to release two studio albums with hits like Miss Movin On, Worth
It and my personal favorite Work From Home.
The girls picked up 3 MTV Europe Music Awards, 4 MTV Video Music Awards, 4 iHeartRadio Music
Awards, an American Music Award, a Billboard Women in Music award and six Teen Choice Awards.
They sold a total of 456K albums, seven million digital songs and earned 1.6 billion on demand
streams making Simon Cowell a lot of money.
Throughout all the success Normani was quick to thank her fam -
I’ve definitely had to overcome a lot and my family’s literally been there for me
through absolutely anything.
If it wasn’t for my family, I would never in a million years have built the courage
to audition for X Factor
and I don’t know if I’d be who I am today.
Camilla Cabello left the group in 2016 and in 2018 Fifth Harmoney went on hiatus so they
could pursue their solo careers. Super fans were well aware that there was trouble amongst
the group for some time.
Normani was the next up after Camilla Cabello to go big or go home with a solo career. She
appered on Dancing With The Stars which is typically where most career go to die – but
she made it the finals. Cause she's dances like a Hurricane.
She teamed up with Khalid with Love Lies in 2018. She also released a two-track joint
EP with producer Calvin Harris (also featuring Nigerian musician Wizkid) in October 2018
and debuted her first solo single, "Waves" featuring rapper 6lack, one month later.
She became the fastest solo artist (without an album) to surpass one billion combined
Spotify streams. Next up she worked with Sam Smith on Dancing With A Stranger and went
on tour opening for Arianna on her Sweetener World Tour. With all this success she was
Aright ladies and gentlemen – I'm gonna wrap this one up here