Many Parts, One Voice

By Arielle Dollinger

Adollinger@longislandergroup.com


Fifth Harmony will play The Paramount on Sept. 23.

Before she was a world-traveling girl-group member, Texas native Ally Brooke Hernandez was preparing for high school graduation, “heavily involved” in her church and living a “simple” life.

Today, she and four others are known as “Fifth Harmony” – a group of female singers, aggregated by producer Simon Cowell during season two of “The X Factor” in 2012.

When she picked up the phone to speak with Long Islander News last week, Hernandez was in St. Louis, Mo. – one of many tour stops. And on Sept. 23, the group will take the stage of The Paramount in Huntington, along with singer/songwriter Meghan Trainor, who released her first single, “All About That Bass,” this summer.

“It’s not just one type of sound,” Hernandez said of her group’s music. “It’s a mixture of sounds, because the girls and I come from different musical backgrounds.”

According to Hernandez, the Paramount performance will involve more dancing than previous performances.

“In our past performances, we haven’t really been able to show our dancing capabilities,” she said.

The music selection of the upcoming Huntington concert will include songs off of Fifth Harmony’s new album, to be released this fall – a display of what Hernandez described as the “diverse, fun, sassy, vulnerable” style the group has developed.

Before the group was a group, strangers Hernandez, Lauren Jauregui, Camila Cabello, Normani Hamilton and Dinah Jane Hansen auditioned individually for “X Factor.” When it came time for each to face elimination, Cowell called them back to the stage and proposed that they return – as a unit.

As the girls began to find their collective sound, they began in the area of pop.

“It felt right at the time, to kind of go in that pop direction,” Hernandez said. “But now… we know our sound a lot better, and it’s more… rhythmic and urban with pop influences, as well.”

During its “X Factor” run, the group went by several names before making one permanent – “LYLAS,” then “1432,” then “Fifth Harmony.” Hernandez jokingly suggested the name “The Tree Huggers,” she recalled.

“The girls joke about it… They think that I was serious,” she said. “I was trying to lighten the mood and just get everybody laughing.”

Eventually, the five girls made “Fifth Harmony” official.

“Of course we harmonize… But also we are five different people with different backgrounds, but we come together,” she said.

The Tuesday, Sept. 23 show will began at 7 p.m. Ticket prices range from $40-$65.