Camila Cabello never wanted to make anyone mad.
Fans everywhere were heartbroken when the the "Havana" singer made her 2016 exit from Fifth Harmony, saying goodbye to her time with bandmates Normani, Ally Brooke, Dinah Jane and Lauren Jauregui. Ultimately, it came down to her passion for songwriting.
"I can remember waking up on tour," Camila said during the March 6 episode of Call Her Daddy, "and going to my hotel room at like 7 a.m. and going to my garage band and like writing songs, cause I didn't want to do it while everybody was there and I had such a passion that turned into writing. And at first I was like, 'Oh maybe I wanna write for other people.' But then it turned into like, 'No, actually I want to sing these songs by myself.'"
She continued, "I started distancing myself from the group vision, and it felt like you know they were still really passionate and into that and so, I was just like, ‘I'm not happy here anymore, it doesn't feel aligned.'"
But looking back on her time with the band—which officially split two years after Camila's exit—she knows it was worth it.
"I feel like I can really focus on and remember the really joyful times," the 27-yer-old said. "And I grew a lot in that group."
And no matter what tensions may have arisen during her exit—including conflicting stories about whether Camila talked to the other members before her departure, which she claims she did—Camila has said she and her former bandmates are in a good place now.
"We have been, like, supportive of each other through like DMs and stuff," she told Reuters in 2022. "I'm like, in a really good place with them."
In fact in her song "Psychofreak" from her Familia album released that year, she sang, "I don't blame the girls for how it went down."
Keep reading for a walk down memory lane of boy and girl bands of today and yesterday.
Backstreet's back, alright! The Backstreet Boys released their first album in 1996, and redefined the turn of the century with 1999 record Millennium. Thankfully, Nick Carter, Howie Dorough, AJ McLean, Brian Littrell and Kevin Richardson are still touring and belting our favorite hits over two decades later.
All hail the girl group that gave us Beyoncé! Don't "Bug a Boo" when it comes to Destiny's Child because Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams are still icons in their own right to this day as well.
Justin Timberlake, Joey Fatone, Lance Bass, JC Chasez and Chris Kirkpatrick made up the iconic boy band group, 'NSYNC. We're still holding out for another reunion performance, and we promise, no strings attached because we aren't ready to say "Bye, Bye, Bye" just yet.
If you wanna be their lover, you've gotta get with their friends...and they sure have a lot! The Spice Girls rocked the U.K. with their '90s fashion and catchy lyrics. Mel C, Victoria Beckham, Mel B, Geri Halliwell and Emma Bunton were the Brit girl group of our dreams.
Far out, man. The Hanson brothers joined the ranks of fellow '90s boy bands with hit song, "MMMBop." Hanson released an album together in 2013 before brothers Isaac Hanson, Taylor Hanson and Zac Hanson went their separate ways for solo careers—and in Taylor's case, raising seven kids! Thankfully, our favorite bros reunited in 2018 for album String Theory and are back on tour through 2022.
Since 2017, Korean boy band BTS has been writing, producing and performing most of their songs as international superstars. The K-pop groups loyal Army of fans are some of the most passionate in music history.
Yep, Nick Lachey was in a boy band and we're burning up way past 98 Degrees just thinking about it. Joined by Drew Lachey and Justin Jeffre, music producers Lachey and Jeff Timmons formed the group after leaving college to pursue music careers in the '90s.
New Kids On the Block skyrocketed to fame in the late 1980s and the group reunited in 2011 for a throwback tour with The Backstreet Boys.
Original NKOTB members were brothers Jordan and Jonathan Knight, Joey McIntyre, Donnie Wahlberg and Danny Wood. The group broke up in 1994 but then reunited several years later and went on tour with the Backstreet Boys in 2011. Not surprisingly, that tour announcement pretty much broke the Internet. They are still performing today.
The Jonas Brothers
Thank god the JoBros are back! The Jonas Brothers gave us Nick Jonas' sweet smile, Joe Jonas' swagger and Kevin Jonas' big brother charisma. Oh, did we mention they can all sing and play instruments too? Excuse us while we're still swooning over these A-listers since their band debuted in 2006.
One of the best bands to ever come out of a singing competition series, One Direction took over the planet in the 2010s. And, the boy band has birthed plenty of successful solo careers, with Zayn Malik, Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan, Liam Payne and Harry Styles all solidifying their place in music (and fashion and film) history.
The X Factor-formed group are princesses of pop and sing about body positivity, feminism, the pressures of social media and juggling it all as young moms.
Lisa, Rosé, Jennie and Jisoo make up K-pop group BLACKPINK, who released their first album—aptly titled, THE ALBUM—in October 2020. "BLACKPINK is—we kind of felt like there's two colors that represented us the most ‘cause we're very girly but at the same time we're very savage too," Rosé explained on Jimmy Kimmel Live at the time. "We have a song called ‘Pretty Savage' and it kind of goes with ‘black pink' and so we thought it described us the best."
Before the world experienced "Work From Home" life due to the coronavirus pandemic, Fifth Harmony gave fans an upbeat (and sexy) anthem to any WFH woes. Breakout singer Camila Cabello went on to have a successful solo career—including even playing Cinderella!—after the girl group went on hiatus in 2018 and other members have also released solo projects.
Australian rockers 5 Seconds of Summer first started on YouTube before singles "She Looks So Perfect" and "Girls Talk Boys" got radio play. Eventually 5SOS opened on tour for One Direction, and the rest is history.
Still performing as a trio, Boyz II Men's Nathan Morris, Shawn Stockman and Wanya Morris have been rocking the charts with hits like "I'll Make Love to You" and "One Sweet Day" for over 30 years.
The bad boy counterpart to One Direction, U.K.-based The Wanted hit it big stateside with 2012 banger "Glad You Came," before starring in their own E! reality series, The Wanted Life. The group went on hiatus in 2014 with promises of being back soon.
From Nickelodeon to national tours, Big Time Rush rocked hard for five years before parting ways in 2014. Good thing all four members—Kendall Schmidt, Logan Henderson, Carlos PenaVega and James Maslow—are back for two new shows in Dec. 2021.
British pop group Girls Aloud made history as one of the first bands formed from a reality competition series. The year was 2002, the show was Popstars: The Rivals and the powerhouse vocalists were Sarah Harding, Cheryl (then known as Cheryl Cole), Nadine Coyle, Nicola Roberts and Kimberley Walsh. Girls Aloud recorded 20 consecutive top 10 singles and four number ones, including "Sound of the Underground," during their reign.