Fifth Harmony interview: ‘We can’t wait to perform in front of a Spice Girl!’

Let’s be honest, Simon Cowell doesn’t exactly have a bad track record when it comes putting a band together at bootcamp and propelling them to global superstardom. Enter Fifth Harmony, the pint-sized girl group with the colossal vocals who are set take the UK by storm with sass-filled, Oprah-checking anthem BO$$.

Consisting of 17-year-old Dinah and Camila, 18-year-old Lauren and Normani and 21-year-old Ally, the girls entered the X Factor’s Yank sister show as solo artists before heading all the way to the grand final as a group, where they eventually finished in third place.

We caught up with Ally (pictured far left) ahead of their X Factor performance this weekend (December 7) to find out what they’ve got in store for us, what to expect from their debut album, and whether they’ve finally won round former X Factor USA judge Miss Britney Spears.

Obviously you guys got your big break on the second season of X Factor USA – what have you been up to since then?
These past two years have been crazy, they’ve been non-stop. We’ve been focusing on is our music and trying to get that perfected – we’ve been working on our album for what feel like forever now! Our fans have been so patient and thank God – it’s been a while! We literally just watched our very first live show performance from X Factor when we performed a Taylor Swift song and we were just laughing, like ‘Oh my god, we have come so far!’

How are you feeling about your X Factor performance this weekend? For most people in the UK it’s going to be their first big introduction to you.
We’re so excited to give you our first performance in the UK! I mean, we’re excited to see the fans’ reaction and other peoples’ reactions. I know we have some Harmonizers over there, so we can’t wait to go over there and see them – that’s gonna be so insane! So I think I’m more excited than anything.

It must be weird to go from being contestants to performing as the celebrity guests?
I know, we just started as contestants who really wanted to be in the music world, so it’s pretty insane that we’re now playing the UK’s X Factor, which is like, one of the biggest stages in the world! But I know it’s gonna be really awesome; it’s gonna be one of our biggest performances ever in terms of production.

How do you look back on you X Factor experience in general?
I mean… there was a lot that happened on the show. We all went from being solo artists to being eliminated, to being a group, and then going to the live shows and figuring out who we were as a group – learning our strengths and weaknesses and our role as bandmates. Overall was a really good experience because that was definitely like a boot-camp of how the industry is; there are last minute changes and there are things you can’t control, and there are some highs and there are some lows. But it was really fun. I think that was definitely a special time in our lives that we’re gonna always cherish.

Obviously Simon was your mentor on the show, do you get to see much of him now?
Oh yeah. He’s so busy and he just had the baby so obviously we haven’t had a lot of interaction with him recently but he’s still involved in our projects a lot. He’s still definitely a big part of us and obviously, you know, getting us on the UK X Factor, haha!

He must be an intimidating guy to work with?
Of course! Definitely when you think you’re going to meet Simon Cowell and be in the same room as him, you get nervous. I know I did, because I had so much respect for him. On the show it was such a pleasant surprise to find out that he’s, like, one of the nicest people in the entire world! And he’s so caring. He really does care about us as people and as artists, and on the show he definitely valued our input and opened up a dialogue and it’s still like that to this day. He’s just one of my favourite people; I love him.

The Fifth Harmony girls from left-right: Dinah, Camila, Normani, Ally and Lauren

Britney was also a judge on your series, but it seemed like you really had to win her over?

Yeah, I mean of course we had to prove ourselves a lot on the show in general, and definitely to the other judges. Because we were still trying to find ourselves they were just being honest about how we were, and we grew a lot. We kind of gained their respect more towards the end of the show, which was really great. They’ve been really, really kind to us. You know, we’re on LA [Reid]’s label and we’re on tour with Demi and we’re now friends. And Britney is on tour doing her thing. But they’re all really, really good to us.

What we’ve heard form you guys so far has been quite eclectic, from Miss Movin’ On to BO$$ – how would you describe the Fifth Harmony sound?
I was actually just gonna say, one of the words that is always used to describe our sound is definitely ‘eclectic’. Our album is as well. We all come from different backgrounds and we all like different music genres, so the really great thing about this album is that is can relate to not just one of us but all of us. We have pop, we have a little bit of R&B, we have throwback kind of ’90s sound and we have a little bit of urban. So I would definitely say it’s eclectic!

BO$$ is definitely a bold statement from you guys – what have you made of the reaction to it?
Definitely from most of the fans the response was pretty positive. There was kind of shock at first and it was definitely different for them, in the video. But it was really positive overall, and whenever we perform that song live the fans get so hyped up and energised and they go crazy, so it’s so much fun with that. It’s fun to perform.

What other girl bands out there do you aspire to?
Oh yes. We love Spice Girls and Destiny’s Child… I think they’re definitely two of our favourite groups of all time because Spice Girls were so much fun and they were so energetic and you felt like they were your friends, and they obviously have awesome music. And Destiny’s Child was incredible because of their vocals and their harmonies, they were so bumpin’! We’re definitely inspired by them and to be able to even attempt to have a career like that is what we wanna do.

How would you describe all your fellow 5H bandmates?
Well… I would definitely describe Lauren as more as the ‘bold’ one – she’s very edgy and she definitely speaks her mind and I think that’s really cool because not a lot of people can do that. And then Camila; she’s very quirky and silly and she can be funny. Normani is more of the fashionista of the group and she’s really fierce on stage. And it’s funny because she can be shy but when she gets on the stage she just transforms into something else. Dinah’s a big personality and loves to socialise and she loves music. And me, I guess I would define myself as… I try to be as positive as I can, and I try to be like the motivator. I think I can be the mom sometimes. I kind of switch my hat between mom and friend!

Are there any other teasers you can give us for the album? We heard a rumour Ariana might be on there…?
Haha well unfortunately Ariana won’t be on it, but that would be amazing! But we do have some collaborations which we’re so excited about. Finally to have other people on the album it’s gonna be good! I can’t say who, but we love them.

Finally, which of our judges do you want to impress most during your performance this weekend?
Oh my gosh. Ohhhh… I mean all of them for sure! But definitely we can’t wait to perform in front of a Spice Girl – that’s crazy! That’s, like, the best and biggest girl group of all time and somebody who we look up to, and we’re going to be able to perform for her! And definitely just the UK in general. We just wanna go there to impress and have a good time!

Fifth Harmony’s debut single BO$$ is out tomorrow (Sunday December 7) in the UK.