Normani Describes Long-Delayed Debut Album ‘Dopamine’ As Ultimate ‘Representation of My Resilience’

Normani might as well be talking to herself on new single “1:59” when she purrs, “don’t talk too much, just do this s–t.” Sure, in the context of the collab with Gunna that dropped on Friday (April 26) the focus is on get-down-to-business pillow talk. But the sexy refrain could just as well be channeling the thoughts of fans who’ve been waiting nearly six years for the former Fifth Harmony star to drop her full-length solo debut since that fateful day in 2018 when she tweeted, “I have my album title y’all.”

“Just do this s–t!” you can hear them yelling after the string of singles she’s released since leaving FH in 2018, including her Billboard Hot 100 No. 9-charting solo debut with Khalid, “Love Lies.” Then there was her No. 7 2019 collab with Sam Smith on “Dancing With a Stranger,” that year’s irresistible “Motivation” and Charlie’s Angels soundtrack song “Bad To You” with Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj, as well as songs with Megan Thee Stallion (2020’s “Diamonds”) and Cardi B (2021’s “Wild Side”) and Calvin Harris (2022’s “New to You” with Tinashe and Offset) in the time since.

But still, no album… until the singer announced the title in February, Dopamine, and teased the riding-a-rocket-in-a-leather-bikini-cover, and then, on Friday, finally, the release date: June 14.

“I know what it’s like to put out music and records that I don’t wholeheartedly believe in. When we were in [Fifth Harmony], we didn’t have the opportunity to have a real opinion until the last project we did,” the singer tells ELLE in a new cover story that details how her plans to release the LP — which at one point was called 1906 for the address of her grandmother’s house where she was raised, then Butterfly Effect — was serially delayed in part due to her parents being diagnosed with cancer; they are both doing better now.

Pile on what the profile describes as heartbreak, “intense, unwarranted internet scrutiny” and a fight for creative control early in her career and you can easily understand the delay.

“I promised myself, ‘If God gives me another opportunity to do things in my own way, I’m not going to take that for granted,’” she says of the collection described as mixing uptempo dance tracks with songs exploring those struggles during and after 5H’s split. “I think that there’s a false narrative that because of how long this process has taken, that means I don’t care, or that means I’m more interested in doing other things than putting this body of work out. Nobody wants this project to come out more than me. I think that at the end of the day, if I stand behind this wholeheartedly, it doesn’t matter what the world thinks.”

To put a finer point on it, she says, “this body of work really is just a representation of my resilience.”

One of the key parts of the album cycle so far has been the outpouring of support she got when she announced the album earlier this year, especially from her former 5H bandmates: Camila Cabello, Ally Brooke, Lauren Jauregui and Dinah Jane. “This is a milestone, knowing everything that I went through in order to just get to this point. I wanted to be present in that and not allow any negative comments,” she tells the magazine. “I really wanted to just celebrate myself. In terms of the support from the girls, that’s really full circle, to be quite honest. We were put in very unrealistic circumstances. We did our absolute best with what we had, but I think that it’s really cool to just see everybody prosper. It was cool that that moment [for me] could also be a moment that could bring us all together.”

She says the album title is a representation of the “highs and lows” she’s endured, while the rocket-straddling cover feels “energetic… it feels like a hit.”

Asked how she feels about the state of women, especially Black women, in music right now, Normani turns to hers, and many others’, north star: Beyoncé. “I want to see more women in charge. I want to see more Black women as chairmen. I want to see more Black women as CEOs,” she says. “I want to see more Black women produce. I know that all of those exist, but it’s just about getting the opportunity and the recognition.”

Normani specifically points to Bey “taking over the country space” with her Cowboy Carter album, which she dubs “revolutionary… Those are the types of things that I set out to do. Now you have country artists who look like us coming out and just being like, ‘We’ve always been here.’ I think that it’s educational not only for music lovers, but also in the Black community. We’ve pioneered a lot that we don’t get recognition for. I think that it’s just really cool being able to witness Beyoncé be fearless and do something that is much bigger than herself. That’s honestly what I want to see more of in every single space of the music industry, because we deserve that. I also want to see Black women not have to fight so hard. It gets exhausting. We’re just as brilliant. We have amazing ideas, and our resilience.”

Listen to “1:59” below.

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