For a while there, Normani Kordei seemed primed for the biggest solo career of all the Fifth Harmony alumni. She had late 2010s hits with Khalid (“Love Lies”) and Sam Smith (“Dancing With A Stranger”). Her 2020 “Motivation” video was a minor sensation online, and the brilliant 2021 Cardi B collab “Wild Side” was a real-deal rap and R&B radio smash. But for reasons not fully comprehensible to those of us who aren’t major-label executives, Normani has been trapped in music industry purgatory for the past few years. She hasn’t released anything since 2022, when she dropped “Fair” and popped up on a Calvin Harris album.
