There’s always one, right? In a boy band or girl group, there’s always The One you just know is going to be the first to break off to chase a solo career. Justin Timberlake. Beyoncé. Zayn (most people would have bet on Harry Styles but I always knew it would be Zayn). Well, pop’s reigning girl group Fifth Harmony has officially lost their One. Camila Cabello –you probably recognize her from Taylor Swift’s Instagram – is leaving the group. In the two days since the announcement, there has been some great girl sh-t to analyze. It’s like Fifth Harmony knew we needed the distraction. On Sunday night, the remaining four members of the group posted a statement on Instagram.
“After 4 and a half years of being together, we have been informed via her representatives that Camila has decided to leave Fifth Harmony. We wish her well.”
HA. The statement goes on to say that the other Four Harmonies, Ally, Normani, Dinah and Lauren, will continue with the group but the above line is too good. “We have been informed via her representatives” was purposeful. It was intended to make Camila look like the heartless hotshot who told her people to tell the other lowly members of the group that she was out.
I won’t tell you how I know this but there has been in-fighting in the group for a while now. The other girls never liked Camila’s friendship with Taylor Swift. In fact, questions about Taylor were on the Do Not Ask list on their most recent album press tour.
Camila has had a couple of successful solo songs over the past year – duets with Shawn Mendes and Machine Gun Kelly. She was also rumoured to be dating Mendes for a hot second. If you’re keeping up with teen girls, you know Shawn Mendes is a BFD. That’s BIG F-CKING DEAL. So, Camila’s stock has risen a lot in the last year. She is by far the most famous member of the group. But Fifth Harmony has had a really good year too. Work from Home was a massive single. They have performed at pretty much every major award show in 2016. It’s hard to say whether Camila’s popularity boost is responsible for the group’s recent successes but it definitely didn’t hurt. Let’s just say, if I were one of the other four girls, I’d be worried.
Last night, Camila responded to the “via her representatives” statement on Twitter writing that she was “shocked” by the announcement.
“The girls were aware of my feelings through the long, much needed conversations about the future we had during the tour. Saying that they were informed through my representatives that I was ‘leaving the group’ is simply not true… I did not intend to end things with Fifth Harmony this way.”
So Camila is calling the other girls liars. Of course, they hit back a couple hours later on Fifth Harmony’s official Twitter page.
God, I really wish we had social media when *NSYNC broke up. I won’t make you read the whole thing. The gist is that the girls say Camila refused to meet with them for months. They got record exec LA Reid involved and she still wouldn’t meet with them. They say they even tried group counseling. They do imply that they knew she was leaving and they begged her to stay but she was all, “I’m Beyoncé and you are all Poor Michelles so f-ck off.” I’m paraphrasing. And obviously, Camila Cabello doesn’t even deserve to be in the same sentence as Queen Bey but you get the idea. The group goes on to say that they are, “saddened by the way [Camila] and her team handled the situation."
Listen, Camila Cabello probably has a small window of time before her teen fans will stop giving a sh-t about her. If she wants to go solo, I would argue that now is the best time. This is a group that was put together by Simon Cowell on X-Factor. They weren’t friends. At the end of the day, it’s a business. Maybe Camila should have sat down with the girls but I’m telling you, these girls don’t speak to each other when they aren’t being paid to.
It’ll be interesting to see if Fifth Harmony can succeed without The One. And how many Instagram photo ops with Taylor Swift will it take for Camila to get all the heartbroken “Harmonizers” back in her good graces?
