Normani joins SZA and Megan Thee Stallion on the cover of the Rolling Stone Women’s Issue. In between photoshoots, the singer/dancer sat down for the latest installment of “The First Time,” discussing her first time performing solo (at the Billboard Music Awards) and her first time working as a brand ambassador for Savage x Fenty.
“The first time I worked for the brand was as the fashion show,” she remembers. “It was crazy. It’s not every day that I’m just on stage dancing hard, jigging, in lingerie. And I’m a very, you know…I’ve got some girls up here, so I was like, ‘God, as long as I don’t come out, I’m good. And if I do, then this is the place.’”
Since going the solo route in her career, Normani has made steps to ensure that her work feels like her own. “Honestly, I learned a lot this past year, in 2019,” she says. “I feel like it was the year that God definitely showed me just a lot of things, just in terms of me as a businesswoman, not necessarily or solely as an artist. There were so many hats that I had to wear, there’s nothing that I’m not involved in, especially because I like to be so hands-on, and I’m very specific.”
She added, “There’s no one that knows or cares as much about your craft [as] you. I’m telling you, you gotta have an amazing support system around you, but as much or as bad as you want something, nobody is ever gonna want that for you as much as you do.”