Normani Reveals Real Reason Behind Debut Album Delay: 'I Think People Kind of Forget That I am a Human Being'

Normani has been teasing her debut album since 2018, the same year when Fifth Harmony separated.

Six years later, Normani has finally plotted the release date of her highly anticipated debut album, Dopamine. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, she revealed what caused the delay.

"Both my parents had gotten really, really sick, and I've had just a lot of deaths pretty much back to back in such a short time frame," Nomani revealed. It turns out Normani's mother was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2020. In the same year, her father learned that he had prostate cancer.

"I think people kind of forget that I am a human being," Normani added. "Granted, I'm really grateful that everybody's remained really excited. I feel like that's unheard of, especially after such a long duration of time."

Normani has been criticized for the long delay of her debut album, which many said had exhausted everyone's anticipation of her. But for the former Fifth Harmony member, it's a relief.

"I think I'm just really excited because it's been such a long journey, and not really an easy one," she admitted. "So I'm really just looking forward to a weight being lifted. Obviously I'm excited for people to have the body of work, but I think for me, internally, I'm very, very excited to get a sense of freedom from all of the pressures and the weight that I've carried over the years in regards to trying to get this project out."

In an interview with Elle, Normani revealed that Dopamine wasn't the original title of her album.

"At one point, it was 1906, because that was the address of my grandmother's house that I was raised in. Then it evolved and turned into Butterfly Effect. That was a whole thing, but it didn't stand the test of time," the singer said of her album titles.

In the same interview, Normani defended the delay – saying that it was not delayed because she didn't care about it.

"..or that means I'm more interested in doing other things than putting this body of work out," she explained. "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."

Normani's Dopamine will be released on June 14, 2024.