FUSE TV - Can Fifth Harmony Survive Without Camila Cabello?

There’s a moment in Fifth Harmony’s career when everything changed—not for the group’s members so much as for the fans. It was backstage at Taylor Swift’s 1989 Tour in August 2015, when Camila Cabello and Shawn Mendes sat down for a quick jam sesh. That 30-minute hangout spiraled into their breakout hit, “I Know What You Did Last Summer,” which eventually gave the Fifth Harmony member her first solo hit and sparked speculation from fans, who wondered if Cabello was prioritizing her own music before her group’s. Some wondered if she was prepping her exit from 5H altogether. The solo project also didn’t seem to fare well with the other four members—Dinah Jane Hansen, Lauren Jauregui, Ally Brooke Hernandez and Normani Kordei—as press runs together got more tense and they started telling interviewers about the inevitable demise of the group. 

On Monday, just over a year after “I Know What You Did Last Summer” was released, Fifth Harmony announced that Cabello was leaving the band, which formed on X Factor in 2012. Since her first song with Mendes, she released her second solo endeavor, “Bad Things” with Machine Gun Kelly. Camila Cabello seems ripe for solo success.

So what happens to Fifth Harmony? The remaining members wrote in statement that they plan to continue as a foursome, with a third album on the horizon. But how do you present yourself as a reinvented entity?  We went to a couple music industry experts (who also happen to be Fifth Harmony fans) for answers.