Camila Cabello on Fifth Harmony, X-Factor and Shawn Mendes

Camila Cabello isn’t the world’s biggest star, but she is the singer-songwriter for countless top hit songs, and she’s close pals with celebs like Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, and Harry Styles. It wasn’t an easy journey to releasing her solo albums after growing to fame in a group, but Camila carved out her own unique path, even if some think she’s already “peaked.”

Yet in all the glitz and glamor of the industry, many fans have forgotten just how Camila got her start. What singing competition did Camila Cabello win, and how did she wind up where she is today?

Camila Cabello Won The X-Factor With Fifth Harmony

Camila Cabello didn’t win a singing competition all on her own. She joined up with four other singers on The X-Factor in 2012. Ally Brooke, Dinah Jane, Lauren Jauregui, and Normani Kordei took to the stage as Fifth Harmony after impressing the judges individually.

A brainchild of Simon Cowell, Fifth Harmony was wildly popular when the group debuted. Of course, winning the reality series kept them in the headlines—especially as tensions grew in the group and Camila Cabello eventually left.

The group formed in 2012 and went on five headlining tours, appeared in three other artists’ tour lineups, released two albums, and even lent their voices to some animated kids’ shows.

Camila departed Fifth Harmony in December 2016, but their final performance as a group of five wasn’t aired until New Year’s Eve that year, due to it being pre-taped.

Camila Cabello Didn’t Mean To Shade Her Former Bandmates

The X-Factor may have given Camila Cabello her start, but she had no qualms about ditching the group when things got rough. Of course, she didn’t necessarily intend to leave on a sour note.

In an old interview, Camila admitted that she realized Fifth Harmony—the group—was going to hold her back creatively. Rather than write their own songs, Fifth Harmony apparently had to follow a prescribed formula, and Camila wanted freedom.

She elaborated in one interview, “I was just curious and I wanted to learn and I saw all these people around me making music, writing songs and being so free. I just wanted to do that and it did not work.”

As she began pursuing songwriting with various producers, she was apparently “given an ultimatum.” Camila lamented the fact that the group wouldn’t let her explore her individuality, but it wasn’t necessarily the other girls who were giving her trouble.

In fact, despite rumors of a long-lasting feud, Camila claims she and her former bandmates are on good terms (or at least, they were as of 2022). That might be a surprise to fans, considering the way Camila’s ‘resignation’ went down.

In their public statement, Fifth Harmony stated that they had “been informed via her representatives that Camila has decided to leave Fifth Harmony.” For Camila’s part, she wrote that the claim was untrue and that “I did not intend to end things with Fifth Harmony this way.”

Of course, she did intend to leave, and though it wasn’t a clean break, Camila was successfully free of her Fifth Harmony ties, and she went on to launch a wildly successful solo career, and with very personal albums like ‘Familia.’

Camila Said She Doesn’t Regret Leaving Fifth Harmony

In 2018, before Camila and Fifth Harmony had a chance to seemingly reconcile, Camila discussed her first solo album and her feelings on The X-Factor and Fifth Harmony.

In a statement that hints she may have still been salty about how it all went down, Camila answered the question of whether there was anything she regretted about how things ended by saying, “I don’t know, I don’t really think about that. That’s a long time ago.”

That ended the line of questioning, and the interviewer moved on to other things. Yet the statement indicated that Camila didn’t really care what happened with Fifth Harmony and that she hadn’t thought about not just the group, but the girls who were previously her friends.

Related: What Have Camila Cabello’s Fifth Harmony Bandmates Said About Her Since The Split?

Of course, at that time, the former bandmates weren’t on great terms, so perhaps Camila didn’t want to dive into the drama at that point. Plus, she was only 20 at the time, and some of her later music talked about how young she started out in the industry and how much growing she has done over the years.

Reflecting on her time in the spotlight, Camila admitted, “My experiences are so different now. I have some FOMO. But I would never trade it for anything.”

So while she didn’t regret leaving Fifth Harmony, and supposedly didn’t consider much about how she departed, she later decided it was worth reconnecting with Normani, Lauren, Dinah, and Ally.

Today, Camila says she and her former bandmates support one another and even DM on social media.

As far as the X-Factor experience? Camila doesn’t seem to have any regrets about that, either. After all, it earned her a big enough spotlight to launch her solo career, and though she only released three albums from 2018 to 2022, her star power has grown impressively.

Given that X-Factor eventually earned Cabello connections with greats like Taylor Swift, Bruno Mars, Ed Sheeran, Coldplay, and even ties to Leonardo DiCaprio. Not to mention her lingering romantic and ‘Señorita’ ties to Shawn Mendes. Thus, it makes sense that the singer has absolutely zero regrets.