Fifth Harmony Stoking New Album, Hotter, More Mature Than ‘Reflection’

Fifth Harmony has a smasher in the works, using heavies in the music industry to produce a second album with a more mature theme than the first. Throwing their weight behind the quintet’s forthcoming project are Norwegian Stargate duo Tor Erik Hermansen and Mikkel Storleer Eriksen, American Suspex duo Mitch Allan and Jason Evigan, and Swedish music producer-songwriter Max Martin.

According to Bustle, the behind-the-scenes team consists of the biggest hitmakers in the industry. This strategic move is a surefire indicator that Fifth Harmony is not messing around with its sophomore album.

The Fifth Harmony American girl-band consisting of Ally Brooke, Normani Kordei, Dinah Jane, Camila Cabello, and Lauren Jauregui, is dealing with heightened fan expectation of a hotter follow-up to Reflection, the group’s solo album that debuted in February, 2015, at No. 5 on the Billboard 200. The album sold 80,000 units in the first week, supported by the Reflection Tour launched on February 27, 2015, in San Francisco and finishing up on March 27, 2015, in Philadelphia. The tour drew more than 30,000 fans, grossing a total of $1.3 million, and was dubbed the group’s most successful tour to date.

Fifth Harmony’s highest charting single in the United States on the Billboard Hot 100, hitting No. 12, is “Worth It,” produced and co-written by Stargate (Mikkel S. Eriksen and Tor Erik Hermansen) and Ori Kaplan, with input from Priscilla Renea. From a woman’s sexually charged viewpoint conveying to a man that she’s “Worth It,” it was an altered piece from what was to be recorded by rapper Kid Ink. The new format got Kid Ink to collaborate on the song instead, the lyrics rewritten for female singers.

For their second album, Fifth Harmony has also reunited with Mitch Allan, who previously produced and co-wrote “Miss Movin’ On” along with Lindy Robbins, Julia Michaels, and Jason Evigan. “Miss Movin’ On” was Fifth Harmony’s debut single after the group placed third on the second season of The X Factor and won a contract with Simon Cowell’s Sysco label.

Swedish music producer and songwriter Max Martin has also been enlisted to help Fifth Harmony with their second album. Making a name for himself in the mid-1990s for crafting major hits for pop celebrities Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears and ‘NSync, Martin had 19-year-old Fifth Harmony singer Lauren Jauregui recently gushing about his participation.

“We’ve been wanting to work with Max for a while, and his camp as well. They’ve produced some of the best records of all time, year after year, consistently. They’re so talented and creative, and there’s real camaraderie and positivity.”

Criticized by a fan for slack attendance and a romantic entanglement with singer Shawn Mendes, 17, that could jeopardize the group, Camila Cabello, 18, denied any wrongdoing. Quoted by Latin Post, the Fifth Harmony member tweeted a firm denial of the gossip.

“I understand nobody’s telling you the real and all you have left to do is assume, but all these assumptions are false.”

Still, Twitter gossip is ablaze about a confusing relationship simmering beneath the public gaze, between the “Stitches” singer and the Fifth Harmony member due to their recent Jingle Ball performance in Los Angeles. Widely circulated photographs that some fans say may have been “photoshopped,” show Mendes and Cabello smooching on the podium.

Fifth Harmony stood out as the most successful by-product of the X Factor‘s U.S. franchise, after its five members who failed to progress individually as soloists on the second season of the X Factor U.S.A. in 2012, joined forces and soared as a cohesive group from there. Crediting the boot camp by Simon Cowell and Demi Lovato for getting them together on July 27, 2012, they have become a force to contend with, representing girl power much like the Spice Girls before them.

[Photo via Getty Images]