As pressure mounts on Normani to deliver an album befitting of her position as a world renown Pop Princess, she seems to be following in the footsteps of her friend and collaborator Nicki Minaj.
For, like Minaj, the entertainer seems to have developed a habit of releasing slow burning sleeper hits.
Read below….
Despite industry-wide efforts to take the star to the top of the Billboard Hot 100, Normani has yet to deliver an Earth-shattering ‘Into You‘-sized hit.
Fortunately, if recent moves made by her singles are anything to go by, the 24-year-old starlet may find herself carving out a commercial lane to Nicki Minaj‘s.
A lane, which has seen the rapper’s singles and album tracks outsell releases they are “out-charted” by on the Billboard Hot 100.
For, despite the fact that it took the MC over a decade to top the tally, she has swept up more solo Gold, Platinum (and in some cases quadruple Platinum) singles than any other female rapper in chart history and, in some cases, has seen her discography eclipse figures earned by her radio-approved Pop peers.
One example?
Her debut album ‘Pink Friday’ which sold more copies in the United States than Rihanna‘s ‘Loud’ in 2011.
Now it appears Normani is on a similar path.
Here’s a breakdown.
On February 14th 2018, the performer teamed up the Pop prince Khalid to drop the single ‘Love Lies’. On March 3rd, it sat at #43 on the competitive chart as ‘Him & I‘ by G-Eazy and Halsey sat within the Top 20 at #14.
Cut to 2020, ‘Love’s US sales figure sit North of 4 million units (4x Platinum), as Eazy’s numbers for the well-received ‘I’ sit a little over the 2 million marker (2x Platinum).
On August 16th 2019, the entertainer released her Max Martin-produced tune ‘Motivation‘.
When the UK’s Official Charts Company released its figures for the chart week which started on August 30th and commenced on September 5th music lovers would have seen the single slip out of the Top 30 and land at #35….two spots lower than Lauv and Anne Marie’s ‘Lonely‘ which had enjoyed a sizeable sales spike that week.
Today, both tracks have been certified Silver in the market with ‘Motivation’ expected to reach Gold status (400,000 units) in the market before the single it was outperformed by.
The moral of the story? Slow and steady wins the race.
As she works with her camp to put the finishing touches on her debut album, it seems that the secret to Normani’s success will not lie in her ability to bag number one or even top ten singles.
Instead, if the trajectory of Minaj’s career is anything to learn from, the trick will be to create attention-grabbing and impactful moments which ensure that no one Normani single is bigger than Normani….and that all Normani-related content is monetised in a way which ensures she is perceived to be winning…even if her chart positions are not.
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