Lauren Jauregui brought sultry grit to her performance of “Expectations” on The Late Late Show With James Corden on Monday. The song is her first single she released following Fifth Harmony’s indefinite hiatus.
With star-like lights twinkling and flanked by an arch trellis adorned with white flowers, Jauregui appeared in an elegant black dress and emotively sang about the expectations that come with a relationship and the struggle to communicate when mutual respect is lacking. “Wish I had no expectations,” she belted on the chorus. “I really wish I could get it through your head/With no confrontation/I really wish we could talk about it instead.”
Jauregui recently explained the double meaning of her first solo song, telling Rolling Stone that it’s about repeatedly getting your heart broken by a dishonest partner, but the name also refers to fans and detractors waiting to see what would come after Fifth Harmony.
“There’s this whole precedent that there should be some sort of expectation of what’s to come, but it’s very unexpected,” she said prior to the song’s release. “It’s not what everyone assumes I’m gonna be making, which is why I love it.”
In January, she performed her second solo cut, “More Than That,” during Corden.