Normani is ready to leave her mark on the R&B scene. The 22-year-old released her highly anticipated collaboration with Atlanta crooner 6LACK, as the pair harmoniously meshed for “Waves” on Thursday (Nov. 15), which premiered on Beats 1. Normani previously performed the track during her fiery set at TIDAL X in Brooklyn last month.
“Any time I’m in the studio, my only job is to be as honest as possible. I want to make music I grew up listening to,” she told Zane Lowe. ?Normani passionately sings about a former lover through the sultry tune’s second verse. “I keep on going through the motions/ When we ended long ago, I should be numb to these emotions/ But you flood my memory just like an ocean and I was drowning in devotion,” she confesses.
The former Dancing With the Stars contestant said fans should expect her debut album to arrive at the top of 2019, but the project won’t feature her Khalid-assisted standout bop “Love Lies.” Normani later reflected on her experience as an integral part of girl group Fifth Harmony.
“We were a girl group that was manufactured on a reality television show. A lot of the time, the odds were against us and I feel like we fought as best we could, and we accomplished things that people may not have necessarily thought that we would have,” she said. “I think that we also fought for respect.”
Stream “Waves” below.
.@Normani album facts:
– Aiming to release in Q1 of 2019.
– The title is a number.
– Another @thegreatkhalid collab? —More with @zanelowe:https://t.co/aXEuGLMGfD #WAVES pic.twitter.com/9Uw02hTV67
— Beats 1 (@Beats1) November 15, 2018