Normani is finally giving the people what they want: her official debut album.
“Cryingg typing this rn,” Normani, 27, wrote via Instagram on Wednesday, February 21, alongside the cover art which features her in a leather and chain bikini sitting on top of a rocket. “DOPAMINE THE ALBUM.”
The singer did not reveal when fans can expect it to drop, but she directed them to a link for people to presave Dopamine on Spotify and Apple Music.
Normani’s new project comes six years after her group Fifth Harmony went on hiatus in 2017 so they could all focus on releasing solo music. The year before, Camilla Cabello exited the band to do the same.
At the beginning of the break, Normani exclusively opened up to Us Weekly about how she was trying to find a “clear vision” of who she was as an artist.
“For so long I feel like people got an idea of who I was in the entity of the group. Even within myself, I kind of got comfortable with that,” she explained to Us in September 2018. “So for me to kind of be detached from that has been an eye-opener for me and, like I said on the stage, me finally being able to discover myself and just different things, different parts of me. There are so many different layers and so many different portions that I haven’t necessarily been able to tap into that I have been introduced to, so it’s really, really cool. It’s like the sky is the limit.”
Normani teased to Us at the time she was “writing” and “coproducing” an album.
Since branching out on her own, Normani signed to Keep Cool/RCA Records. She achieved success by releasing duets “Love Lies” with Khalid in 2018 and “Dancing With a Stranger” with Sam Smith in 2019. In 2019, she also dropped her first solo single, “Motivation,” which went platinum.
Despite creating several singles, Normani had yet to drop any kind of EP or LP. In June 2022, Normani shared that she was taking her time putting together the music because she wanted her debut to fully reflect who she is as a performer.
“I had a lot of growing to do,” she said in an interview with Bustle at the time. “I had a lot of artist development, which I feel like people don’t take seriously. They throw artists on stage completely unprepared. And for me, that mentality was very important. Now, I’ve also been very critical on myself. So, I think it’s been a combination of things, but it’s definitely going to be worth the wait.”
