Normani on the pressure of finally releasing her debut album — and why 'Candy Paint' “had” to be on it

"Sometimes you just got to give the people what they want," the singer says on the eve of her long-awaited new LP, "Dopamine."

Where's the album, sis?

That question has plagued many an R&B diva, from SZA, who took her sweet time delivering her blockbuster sophomore project, SOS, to Rihanna, who still seems unbothered, in typical Rihanna fashion, that she has yet to produce the follow-up to her last full-length effort, 2016's Anti.

Then there's 27-year-old Normani Kordei Hamilton, who has endured the same kind of pressure that comes with being highly anticipated, but with something more to prove to the world — and maybe to herself. Five years after teasing fans with her first solo single — an eternity on the internet — she is finally releasing her first solo album, Dopamine.

Hailing from the short-lived, X Factor–spawned girl group Fifth Harmony, Normani unleashed "Motivation" in 2019, an effortlessly catchy bop that went certified platinum and won over a new legion of fans. A debut album seemed imminent. Then, it wasn't. Deadlines came and went, and Normani released acclaimed track after acclaimed track: "Diamonds" with Megan Thee Stallion in 2020; "Wild Side" with Cardi B in 2021; "New to You" with Calvin Harris, Offset, and Tinashe (another R&B artist who knows a thing or two about starts and stops) in 2022.

So. Where was the album, sis?

"I feel like it's just been a combination of changing teams and people coming and going and also just real life happening that I couldn't have predicted, and just doing my best to navigate that," Normani tells Entertainment Weekly just weeks before Dopamine is set to land.

"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," she says. After her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2020 (she had been in remission for nearly two decades), her father learned that he had prostate cancer. It's understandable how her priorities may have shifted.

"I think people kind of forget that I am a human being," says Normani, who was born in Atlanta and grew up in New Orleans. "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."

Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.

She's got a point. In today's TikTok-tunes timeline, nothing seems long for this earth. Yet Normani is that increasingly rare pop artist: one who might actually be worth the wait. Take her performance of "Motivation" at the 2019 Video Music Awards. It was a coronation moment, declaring "this is the New Girl." The mic was on as Normani dropped down from a basketball hoop, flipped, split, and twerked across the entire stage, proving what some had suspected all along: Despite Fifth Harmony's massive success (they remain one of the best-selling girl groups of all time), they had just been holding her back.

There hadn't been a live performer as dynamic and engaging since Beyoncé came dangling, upside down, from the ceiling at the VMAs some 15 years earlier. And with a string of solid singles to wet the public's appetite — her pre-"Motivation" duet with Sam Smith, 2019's "Dancing With a Stranger," marks her biggest hit to date — Team Normani built up more and more anticipation while the singer fiddled in the studio.

But was it too much anticipation? Too much pressure? Normani, for her part, is feeling relief more than anything.

Related: Pedro Pascal, Normani shine in the raucous, blood-splattered Freaky Tales

"I think I'm just really excited because it's been such a long journey, and not really an easy one," she says. (The singer's parents are healthy now). "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."

That said, the artist hesitates to call the process of making Dopamine a completely therapeutic one — it was "probably one of the hardest things that I've ever had to do in my life," she admits. When it is finally released, she hopes to have a sense of fulfillment, which she feels she deserves at this point.

That flush of excitement, contentment, and fulfillment is reflected in the album's title. "I honestly just feel like it encompasses and represents not only the records that you're going to hear on the project, but also me being the dopamine," she explains. "I feel like it kind of represents everybody every five seconds being like, 'Where's the damn album? We want the music.' So it's representing me being the dopamine hit that everybody's kind of been demanding. And it just sounds really good!"

For Dopamine, Normani tapped into her pop, hip-hop, and R&B roots — "the Janets, the Beys, the Aaliyahs, the Britneys" she idolized as a kid — artists with whom she shares DNA and for whom she is a clear successor. She also took inspiration from women in her own life and the things they've been through to weave together an album that is both personal and, she hopes, universal.

One of the LP's standout tracks, the new single "Candy Paint," leaked two years ago, but her followers — and the singer herself — loved it so much that she decided she had to have it on the album. "The fans are still demanding that song, so I'm like, sometimes you just got to give the people what they want,'" she says. "I listened to it last night in the studio and it still sounds really good. I feel like that every time I play it. So I'm just like, I guess don't try to fix what's not broken."

Because Normani has been recording and revamping this album for so long, its songs capture her in various phases of her life; some are portraits of who she is now, on the brink of 28. But you won't find "Motivation.' Of all her previous singles, only "Wild Side" made the final cut. But the singer is more than confident there will be enough dopamine to go around, particularly when she takes her show on the road. Performing, after all, is where she truly shines.

"I've enjoyed the recording process, but I'm like, 'Put me on stage! I'm ready to perform, I'm ready to do the videos.' That's my bread and butter. And that's just where I have the most joy," she says. "I'm a visual artist, and it's been a really long time since I've seen my fans and been able to feel their energy. I think what I'm most excited for is seeing them and hearing them sing the songs back, seeing what their favorites are, and what songs are they going to go up to."

Babes, wake up. The Dopamine is about to hit.

Dopamine is out June 14.

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.