S24: Normani Kordei - Will Her X Factor Translate Into Trophies?

[vdw84]

Its on youtube still I think. The interview is on there. Fans of Camilla, the girl who left was semiracist herself from what I heard got mad at normani because the interviewer was asking normani to say what she likes about each of her bandmates and for some reason I guess it took normani maybe longer to comment on camilla and they went ballistic because she didnt give her answer quick enough. Just stupid, stupid, stupid stuff. They went crazy over that and it escalated to them taking over her twitter account.

[kxmalakhan]

55 minutes ago, ClareWalks said:

Normani mentioned something about "an article taken out of context," or an interview that was taken out of context, which precipitated all this racist shit being thrown at her. Does anyone know where I could see that interview? Because I am trying to envision what this article could have possibly said to make a bunch of lunatics photoshop hate crimes with her face on them. 

she called camila "cute and quirky" and her stans got mad. tbh their microaggressions and stereotyping of her even before then was pretty blatant, she's so sweet and shy but they'd take her facial expressions out of context as well and call her shady. this interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfRivKcZpEY

[vibeology]

Pretty much. She was asked by the interviewer to describe each of the girls in one word. For all the girls except Camila she broke that rule and said several things. For Camila she said she was cute and quirky after a pause. Camila's unreasonable fans (and please note that I'm not saying all of her fans are unreasonable but referring to the unreasonable segment of her individual fanbase) went crazy, harassing Normani on twitter, calling her shady and rude and then escalating to the horrifying photos and racist comments others have mentioned.

I've seen the video and Normani clearly isn't as close to Camila as she is to some of the other girls and she is less effusive when talking about her but at the same time Camila and one of her friends once referred to the rest of the group and Normani specifically as the n-word in texts that had been hacked and leaked before this interview so maybe that's why Normani wasn't as close to her.

[vdw84]

Normani use to be close to Camilia until Camilia showed her ass. Camilia and her whole damn family have been known to be racist.

[Sstt]

Normani has jazz and Venamese waltz this week and apparently she's going to talk about fun times in New Orleans not the Katrina that affected her 

[spanana]

Deleted

Edited May 10, 2017 by spanana
Nevermind

[ClareWalks]

Thanks to everyone re: the interview! I had no idea what was taken out of context, I guess it turns out that some people are just CRAZY. "You don't immediately shower praise on the person I'm a fan of? YOU MUST DIE!!!" Batshit.

[dolewhip]

Before S24, I knew of Fifth Harmony and liked some of their songs (All in My Head) but honestly couldn't name any of its members. 10 weeks later, I have to say Normani won me over and had a great run - the best of the season, easily. Not only that, but she showed herself to be humble, sweet, caring, gracious, and hard-working (considering her rigorous tour schedule during the first few weeks). I hope this saga brings good things Normani's way; she certainly deserves them.

But wow. When I watched her Contemporary routine I didn't know the story behind it at all, as I just watched the dance. So the bullying was from supposed fans of Fifth Harmony? This interview with Normani added more color for me as well. Shame on the thousands (millions?) of people who could behave so atrociously, and kudos to her for how she's pressed forward.

[crossover]

I'm glad she decided to do DWTS.  She wasn't my favorite but I really enjoyed Val and her.

[Lady Calypso]

I'm also glad she did DWTS. It gave her more exposure, instead of just being that girl from that girl group, and it was good to watch her and Val. I may not have liked all of her dances, but she was one of the strongest dancers this season. So good on her for making it to the finale. I just wish she took 2nd instead. 

[ClareWalks]

I wrote a nice tweet that Normani deserved a higher ranking but that she is young and beautiful and will do well in the future, and a fan of hers sent me multiple tweets to rip me apart for hating on Normani because I didn't call for DWTS's collective head. WTF. These fans are literally insane.

On 5/10/2017 at 5:22 PM, ClareWalks said:

I guess it turns out that some people are just CRAZY. "You don't immediately shower praise on the person I'm a fan of? YOU MUST DIE!!!" Batshit.

Makes my reply a few posts up in this thread quite prescient, I guess.

[dcubed]

5 minutes ago, ClareWalks said:

I wrote a nice tweet that Normani deserved a higher ranking but that she is young and beautiful and will do well in the future, and a fan of hers sent me multiple tweets to rip me apart for hating on Normani because I didn't call for DWTS's collective head. WTF. These fans are literally insane.

This isn't so unique to Normani.  I don't have Twitter but I do have Instagram and many of the comments to celebs are way over the top.  So many fans that follow celebs on various social media are complete nuts.  If I were a celeb, I would be afraid of these people.  They are unhinged. 

[ClareWalks]

18 minutes ago, dcubed said:

This isn't so unique to Normani.

Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that "these fans" referred only to Normani's fans. More like "these anonymous Twitter freaks," LOL.

[dcubed]

6 minutes ago, ClareWalks said:

Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that "these fans" referred only to Normani's fans. More like "these anonymous Twitter freaks," LOL.

Sorry.  I didn't mean to sound snarky.  I just meant to say that there are lots scary fans out there.  "Anonymous Twitter Freaks" is a perfect description and would be a great name for a band. 

[ClareWalks]

34 minutes ago, dcubed said:

Sorry.  I didn't mean to sound snarky.  I just meant to say that there are lots scary fans out there.  "Anonymous Twitter Freaks" is a perfect description and would be a great name for a band. 

Amen! I made the mistake of replying once with something like "it's just a TV show, it doesn't really matter." Hoooo boy. "IT MATTERS TO NORMANI OMG YOU MONSTER" which is when I hit the Block button ;) I really don't understand the mentality that makes people rant soooo much on Twitter about a stupid dance competition. There is so much more important business in the world.

[Mittengirl]

How old is Normani's core fan base?  Younger than her, I'm thinking?   

She seems like a very nice young lady and I hope fame does not mess her up like it seems to with so many young artists.  She is a nice Kardashian-Jenner antidote.

[Uke]

8 hours ago, ClareWalks said:

I wrote a nice tweet that Normani deserved a higher ranking but that she is young and beautiful and will do well in the future, and a fan of hers sent me multiple tweets to rip me apart for hating on Normani because I didn't call for DWTS's collective head. WTF. These fans are literally insane.

Makes my reply a few posts up in this thread quite prescient, I guess.

Sounds similar to what I went through a couple weeks ago talking about the dances with my friends on twitter.  The fans don't seem to realize that neutral observers (not fans but not negative either) can be turned off by the behavior of the obsessed fans.  I knew nothing about Normani (or Zendaya or a few others) going in to the show. She seemed nice and had obvious talent.  But the love-her-or-you're-evil  tweeting turned me off to her.  I really know nothing about her now that the show is over. What a shame.

[gohawks]

It's the main reason I don't like Derek. His fans.

[Between the lines]

On May 10, 2017 at 1:29 PM, vibeology said:

Pretty much. She was asked by the interviewer to describe each of the girls in one word. For all the girls except Camila she broke that rule and said several things. For Camila she said she was cute and quirky after a pause. Camila's unreasonable fans (and please note that I'm not saying all of her fans are unreasonable but referring to the unreasonable segment of her individual fanbase) went crazy, harassing Normani on twitter, calling her shady and rude and then escalating to the horrifying photos and racist comments others have mentioned.

I've seen the video and Normani clearly isn't as close to Camila as she is to some of the other girls and she is less effusive when talking about her but at the same time Camila and one of her friends once referred to the rest of the group and Normani specifically as the n-word in texts that had been hacked and leaked before this interview so maybe that's why Normani wasn't as close to her.

 

The messages of Normani’s former bandmate calling her the N-word aren’t real. Camila’s one and only facebook account was under Karla Cabello, her first name and those messages were from an account under Camila Cabello. They were photoshopped by 5H fans that wanted to ruin her image and life and hacked into her iCloud and got unseen pictures of her to go with the photoshopped messages to make everything more believable. Has she said the N-word in the past? Yes, when she was 14/15 and had a fan account for One Direction and the twitter lingo back then was to refer to your friends as “my n****.” She took responsibility for it, learned why you shouldn't say that word and apologized once it was exposed. We all don’t come into this world at that age knowing everything. Other members in that group also have problematic pasts from when they were younger but it doesn’t get constantly brought up like it does with her. One of them won’t even apologize for her offensive comments or jokes but whatever. If those messages checked out to be real then I think the media would have picked up on it to expose her especially since 5H fans were adamant on spreading them to media outlets and someone like Perez who hated her at the time would have had no problem dragging her name, but even he didn’t believe them. Plus, the people who made those up didn’t think everything through as some of them were Camila complaining to her friends that the other girls were jealous of her during X Factor time because she was getting all the solos when it was Lauren who was getting the most singing time back then. 

Normani and Camila were very close at one point but the rift happened two years ago most likely due to creative differences and Camila wanting to do solo work outside of 5H because the music they were putting out were just songs handed to them. That interview happened and the fans thought it was funny how Normani only had two things to say about Camila while having loads to say about the others and then media, like Perez picked up on it and it blew up with headlines of Normani being petty and shady. Then those ugly images surfaced on twitter. But simple investigating and tracking of IP addresses, the account was a 5H account posing as a Camila fan account to make her and her fans look bad and change the narrative. Their fans till this day still try to attempt this kind of thing because even though they’ve witnessed how hurt and broken those images made Normani, they’d rather put trying to make someone look bad over someone they claim to love and support feelings. And for why? Because they’re dead set on ruining her former bandmate’s reputation in the industry and her career, but I don’t think that’s panning out too well because anyone who works with Camila sings her praises professionally and personally.

And also Camila is a Cuban-Mexican immigrant that has racist and xenophobic comments thrown at her, death threats, being called the most vile things, spamming her insta with the snake emoji, wishing her Mexican father rapes her, etc. I’ve seen some of those comments get hundreds of retweets too. She was the first one to even speak up about what happened to Normani and told everyone that you don’t need to bring other people down in order to support her and that’s not what she stands for. The other 3 members didn’t say anything in defense of Normani until their fans harassed them on twitter to say something. And none of them have ever said anything to stop the kind of hate Camila gets either. She was clearly unhappy in the group for 2 years and even said she deleted the twitter app from her phone to stop her from lurking because the hate was obviously starting to get to her. The girl is so sensitive and barely stands up for herself because she’s scared of hurting somebody else’s feelings or sparking fans to attack back whoever said something disgusting to her. I don’t think she’d ever wish upon anyone the kind of pain she got through cyberbullying, especially Normani or anyone else in that group. She may have never vocalized how much it affected her like Normani did but you could visibly see it was taking a toll on her.

Every fandom has crazy and intense fans that cross lines but I think for manufactured groups like 5H and 1D it’s heightened to a completely different level. There are rare fans that support all 5 members. Everyone has a favorite and as the years go on and the group starts becoming more successful, it becomes a competition between favorites on who is the most relevant. I feel for all the girls because their fans have a sense of entitlement towards them because they feel they’re the reason for all their success. They forced a sexuality onto Lauren before she was even ready to accept that about herself and then even forced her out of the closet by leaking a personal picture. The group’s brand is feminism and women empowerment  yet their fans do the opposite of that and slut shame/body shame any female artist they feel like is a threat to their girls. And then this “feud” between Camila and Normani got blown up to a nasty point because their fans got involved and took it to extremes. But 5H didn’t really help that since they put out contradictory and unprofessional statements in regards to Camila’s departure that placed all the blame on her and encouraged fans to harass her even more. You compare that to the way 1D handled Zayn’s exit, 5H’s statements just screamed mean girls. It’s crazy to me that she is painted as a villain because she wasn’t happy, sought out an opportunity to leave, put herself first, took it and left. I don't get trying to make someone you don't even know look that bad either when it has no direct affect to your life? I mean they’ll be fine as a 4 piece just as she is fine on her own. Everyone is happy and that’s what should matter so move on.

But anyways, good for Normani for getting this opportunity and experience and this time to shine individually outside of her group even if she didn’t win. Seeing comments about people not caring to get to know her or her leaving them cold is a shame because she is a very poised young woman with a lot to offer. Ironically when I was a 5H fan, I loved her friendship with Camila because they were very silly together and Camila brought her out of her shell but things happen. Life takes you down different roads sometimes. There isn’t always a bad person in a breakup either.

[spanana]

I think ultimately DWTS was a good thing for Normani.  I don't know what is next for her because I feel like she is likely chained to her group for as long as the group lasts, which limits solo projects.  However I don't think anybody outside of 5th Harmony fans knew her name before this show.  Maybe some recognized her on sight, but it can be hard to stand out in a girl group, and this gave Normani a leg up and set her up a bit for when her time in 5th Harmony comes to an end.

I find in general that pop star fans, across the board, are the worst on social media.  I don't know what it is about music and pop stars that elevates stan levels to over the top crazy.  It's not just unique to Normani and 5th Harmony.  I do wish the fans could see the irony of stanning someone who supports anti-bullying when they then act as bullies themselves.  I don't think pop stars are responsible for the actions of their fans, but I do appreciate celebs that speak out when they see their fans doing not so nice things.

The argument that I saw a lot about Normani, that I personally will never understand, is the idea is that she was the only one that deserved anything and that a higher power was looking out for her and nobody else.  I'm not a religious person, but why would a higher power only care to reward Normani for her hardships but not Rashad for his?

I also saw a lot of really nasty things being said about Emma, Rashad, Lindsay, David, Sasha and anyone that dared to publicly support Rashad or David.  I just hope none of it is actually getting back to folks directly.  I understand being upset.  I even understand not liking people.  I don't understand the need to make fun of peoples looks or employment status or overall life just because you didn't get the outcome you wanted on a silly reality show that ultimately means nothing and you need to cut other people down to lift your person up.

[gohawks]

17 hours ago, spanana said:

I think ultimately DWTS was a good thing for Normani.  I don't know what is next for her because I feel like she is likely chained to her group for as long as the group lasts, which limits solo projects.  However I don't think anybody outside of 5th Harmony fans knew her name before this show.  Maybe some recognized her on sight, but it can be hard to stand out in a girl group, and this gave Normani a leg up and set her up a bit for when her time in 5th Harmony comes to an end.

I find in general that pop star fans, across the board, are the worst on social media.  I don't know what it is about music and pop stars that elevates stan levels to over the top crazy.  It's not just unique to Normani and 5th Harmony.  I do wish the fans could see the irony of stanning someone who supports anti-bullying when they then act as bullies themselves.  I don't think pop stars are responsible for the actions of their fans, but I do appreciate celebs that speak out when they see their fans doing not so nice things.

The argument that I saw a lot about Normani, that I personally will never understand, is the idea is that she was the only one that deserved anything and that a higher power was looking out for her and nobody else.  I'm not a religious person, but why would a higher power only care to reward Normani for her hardships but not Rashad for his?

I also saw a lot of really nasty things being said about Emma, Rashad, Lindsay, David, Sasha and anyone that dared to publicly support Rashad or David.  I just hope none of it is actually getting back to folks directly.  I understand being upset.  I even understand not liking people.  I don't understand the need to make fun of peoples looks or employment status or overall life just because you didn't get the outcome you wanted on a silly reality show that ultimately means nothing and you need to cut other people down to lift your person up.

I don't know about pop fans but I do know there is a DWTS  fan  site that is dedicated to ripping the C-bros , anyone associated with them and anyone who is their fan.

As for Normani, like Zendaya, I knew very little about her before this show. Now I am a fan. I can see this leading to other opportunities in entertainment.  Opportunities she would not have had without this experience. 

I  wonder about those who "just couldn't connect" to her. She was poised ,sweet and reserved. I have read on other boards that old trope that she had an  "attitude". Frankly I think that any young traditionally  attractive young Black woman should think of this show as a springboard and completely write-off the competition. 

Edited May 26, 2017 by gohawks

[spanana]

11 hours ago, gohawks said:

I don't know about pop fans but I do know there is a DWTS  fan  site that is dedicated to ripping the C-bros , anyone associated with them and anyone who is their fan.

It works both ways.  First off, if everyone ignored that site instead of using it as a DWTS news source, it would have gone away by now.  I'm also not going to pretend the C-bros fans (and even some of their friends) aren't just as nasty in the other direction.  The only difference is they are less organized and don't have a particular website that they front for their views.  They just contain it to their social media pages.

I can't stand that site and their agenda, but I'm not going to pretend that the other side is innocent and doesn't do the same thing in a far less organized way.

It's just neither side has any self awareness that they are doing the same thing.

[Uke]

9 hours ago, spanana said:

It works both ways.  First off, if everyone ignored that site instead of using it as a DWTS news source, it would have gone away by now.  I'm also not going to pretend the C-bros fans (and even some of their friends) aren't just as nasty in the other direction.  The only difference is they are less organized and don't have a particular website that they front for their views.  They just contain it to their social media pages.

I can't stand that site and their agenda, but I'm not going to pretend that the other side is innocent and doesn't do the same thing in a far less organized way.

It's just neither side has any self awareness that they are doing the same thing.

This! and especially the bolded.

[gohawks]

On 5/26/2017 at 7:51 AM, spanana said:

It works both ways.  First off, if everyone ignored that site instead of using it as a DWTS news source, it would have gone away by now.  I'm also not going to pretend the C-bros fans (and even some of their friends) aren't just as nasty in the other direction.  The only difference is they are less organized and don't have a particular website that they front for their views.  They just contain it to their social media pages.

I can't stand that site and their agenda, but I'm not going to pretend that the other side is innocent and doesn't do the same thing in a far less organized way.

It's just neither side has any self awareness that they are doing the same thing.

The fact that it is organized makes it far worse, in my opinion,  than the random rantings of fans. That site literally blocks any opinion that does agree with their bizarre, committed and organized hatred of anyone who is vaguely associated with the Chmerkovskiys.  Organized hatred is not the same as the hateful rantings of individuals.

[tessaforever]

The thing about Normani - and I think it's probably happened many times, including with Simone, and others like Paige - is that because they are great dancers (or very gifted athletically), they have heard "You could win DWTS!" numerous times from family and friends. I'm sure no one had ever said that to David or Rashad. So the incoming expectations are different for someone like Normani. Which means if/when she loses, the disappointment will be harsher. There's not just the failure to win, but the feeling of letting down everyone who always "knew" you could win.