The last time Normani Kordei competed on a reality show, it was as part of a group.
Kordei, 20, made it to the finals of season two of the U.S. edition of The X Factor as a member of Fifth Harmony.
“We’re with each other 24/7,” Kordei tells PEOPLE of traveling the world with her groupmates. “We see each other in our most vulnerable moments.”
But breaking from the group to compete on Dancing with the Stars solo raised eyebrows and had some fans speculating Kordei could be indicating she wants to go solo like her former groupmate Camila Cabello did late last year.
“No!” says Kordei, who placed third in the reality dancing competition series on Tuesday night’s nail-biting finale. “I mean, we’re definitely all interested in different things and we’ll pursue solo endeavors, but right now Fifth Harmony is still the focus!”
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In fact, she’s excited about the new music the group has been working on.
“We’re not the same people we were a year ago. We’re not even the same people we were two months ago,” she says. “You’ll hear our growth and maturity reflected in the music we’re creating. We’ve been working really hard. And this is the first time personally that I’ve vibed out and turned on Fifth Harmony on my own because I love the songs so much. We’ve literally been vibing out to our own album.”
And she wouldn’t want to be doing it with anyone else.
“I’m so grateful I’m going through it with other beautiful girls — intelligent women,” she says of Lauren Jauregui, Ally Brooke and Dinah Jane. “They are great individuals who I can learn from the rest of my life.”