Ciara

Normani holds one of the most sought-after and long overdue albums in music. Fans of the former Fifth Harmony member have been waiting for a solo effort from her since her arrival as a solo act in late 2018. Three years later, after multiple false starts, award show performances, and the sensation that was “Motivation” and its music video, Normani will close 2021 without her long-awaited debut. As disappointing as that might be to some, there are great signs of it arriving in 2022. During an episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, which was guest-hosted by Ciara, Normani delivered an update about her first full-length project.

Normani announced that her debut is “almost done” and also spoke about the difficulties of perfecting the project. “People really underestimate how hard it is and how much effort we put into one project, one body of work,” she said. “Coming out of a girl group, there was a lot that I had to figure out about myself and fears that I had to deal with head-on … When you give your baby out to the world, which is our music, that’s the deepest part of me.”

She continued, “You give people the opportunity to kind of pick it apart and have an opinion on it, but I believe in what I’m doing now.”

During the conversation, Normani also took a moment to show Ciara some love for how she influenced her. “From literally the earliest memories that I have, you were a part of that and you really helped shape the artist and the woman that I felt like could be,” Normani said. “You opened my mind to those possibilities. Black girl magic!”

You can watch Normani’s sit-down with Ciara in the video above.