Camila Cabello ‘didn’t want to suck’ in Fifth Harmony

She shot to stardom Fifth Harmony, following their success on The X Factor USA, but shocked fans on announcing her exit from the band in 2016.

Since then, Camila Cabello has gone on to enjoy solo success and has credited her time in the girlband for helping prepare her for going it alone. 

The vocal talent, 20, spoke candidly of her rise in the music industry in an interview with NET-A-PORTER’s digital magazine The EDIT, where she also discusses her struggles with ‘pushing herself’ socially – claiming her busy working schedule has led to her becoming an introvert.

Camila explained that being in a group with four other girls – Ally Brooke, Normani Kordei, Dinah Jane and Lauren Jauregui – led to a sense of ‘healthy competition’ between them and it had made her conscious of being the band’s weakest link. 

As a result, she claims being part of a group helped to ‘shape her’ as a person, as she learnt so much about herself through her experiences with Fifth Harmony. 

She said: ‘I would not be the person that I am right now; I would not have been ready for this. I feel like being part of a group teaches you so many things about yourself, ironically.

‘You never want to be the one that sucks,’ she insisted. 

Determined: In an interview with The EDIT, the singer explained she was conscious of being the band’s weakest link and said: ‘I feel like being part of a group teaches you so many things about yourself, ironically’

Social struggles: Camila also discussed her struggles with ‘pushing herself’ socially – claiming her busy working schedule has led to her becoming an introvert

Camila had auditioned for The X Factor USA in 2012 and was catapulted into the spotlight at just 15 years old. While she was initially eliminated at the show’s bootcamp stage. Camila then found herself forming Fifth Harmony with her former bandmates under the instruction of Simon Cowell. 

The girls went on to finish third on the series and subsequently landed a record deal with Syco, where they then went on to release hits such as Work From Home and Worth It, before Camila’s departure from the band was announced. 

The remaining members of Fifth Harmony had released a statement and claimed they had been ‘truly hurt’ by Camila’s decision to leave the group, while slamming the starlet and her team for ‘refusing’ to discuss her future and that of the band’s. 

Camila, meanwhile, said she was ‘unaware’ that the girls were planning to release a statement and was ‘left shocked’ by their claims – insisting she had many conversations about her desires to go solo, adding: ‘Saying that they were just informed through my representatives that I was ‘leaving the group’ is simply not true.’

Exit: Camila had confirmed her departure from Fifth Harmony in December 2016 – but conflicting statements from the rest of the girls and her followed in the wake of her exit

Since then, Camila has been focusing on her career as a solo artist and recently released her debut album, ‘Camila’, originally titled The Hurting. The Healing. The Loving. – that includes a slew of her personally penned tracks, including her single Havana. 

However, Camila admits that throwing herself into music impacted on her socially, as she would go long periods without seeing anybody, causing her to become much more introverted. 

‘I forget how to interact with people [socially],’ she claimed. ‘Usually I don’t want to go out and meet a new person – even if it’s a boy I like, I try and make an excuse. 

‘It’s constantly something that I have to push myself to do.’

Personal battles: Camila admits that throwing herself into music impacted on her socially, as she would go long periods without seeing anybody, causing her to become much more introverted

In her interview with the publication, Camila also touched on her experience of living as an immigrant in the US and explained why she had chosen to dedicate her music video to Havana to the ‘Dreamers’ – the young undocumented immigrants who, under Trump’s administration face deportation after the recession of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). 

Revealing she had arrived in the States under similar circumstance, Camila explained: ‘There’s nothing that really separates me from them – it’s the same story. 

‘We came [to] the United States at a really young age, parents moved you here… I can’t imagine someone saying, ‘You can’t live here anymore; you have to move back to Mexico or Cuba.’ I don’t have a home there.’ 

Camila was born in Havana, Cuba, and is Cuban-Mexican, with her father hailing from Mexico City. She moved to Miami, Florida with her family at the age of five.   

To see The EDIT’s full interview with Camila Cabello visit www.net-a-porter.com/magazine/437/9 

Woes: She explained: ‘I forget how to interact with people [socially],’ she claimed. ‘Usually I don’t want to go out and meet a new person – even if it’s a boy I like, I try and make an excuse’