Fifth Harmony grows with audience

March 15, 2015 at 12:00a.m.

Putting the pop in popular culture, all-girl group Fifth Harmony knows how to reach its audience.

“I hope people that listen to our music feel empowered and enjoy it, because it’s really just fun,” said Fifth Harmony member Lauren Jauregui, 18, calling from Dallas. “It’s music that’s young and fresh. I hope they listen to it while they’re getting ready to go to a party, or while they’re crying because a boy broke up with them. Feeling solace and comfort from our music would be great.”

Being empowered by music is something the Fifth Harmony members Jauregui, Camila Cabello, Dinah Jane Hansen, Ally Brooke and Normani Kordei know all about. While individually the girls were eliminated just over two years ago as contestants on “The X Factor,” all five were quickly encouraged to form a group, which ended up finishing third on the reality show’s second season.

With “X Factor” promotion and exposure buoying the outfit early on, Fifth Harmony released its 2013 debut EP, “Better Together, ” which landed at No. 6 on the Billboard Top 200 and was Top 10 on iTunes in 41 countries. The EP also spawned the hit single, “Miss Movin’ On.”

Then 2014 proved to be quite a year for Fifth Harmony. Not only did the outfit act as arena-tour openers for Demi Lovato and Austin Mahone, but the group had its own headlining outing, the “5th Time’s A Charm Tour.”

Also, the band’s lead single, “BO$$,” went gold. Now the quintet is back with its debut full-length effort, “Reflection,” which was released last month. The songs are different from Fifth Harmony’s earlier material, which was unabashedly targeted towards the Disney Radio crowd.

“For ‘Reflection,’ we wanted an older audience compared to the younger audience to become more widespread,” Jauregui said. “There are quite a few songs in general that are a step up in maturity and lyric content from our EP.

“We just kind of focused on things we relate to as 18- to 21-year-olds. We just kind of grew with our music. We’re expressing what we are doing now at our age instead of what we did then.”

Those songs that define this songwriting maturation include the title track, as well as the outfit’s latest single, “Worth It [featuring Kid Ink].”

The latter was pitched to the girls by rapper Kid Ink. However, the tune was originally from a male perspective, so Fifth Harmony helped rework “Worth It” into its current form.

“We just think it’s a really fun song with a great beat,” Jauregui said.

Now, another Fifth Harmony headlining tour is in order as “The Reflection Tour” comes through Youngstown on Wednesday for a show at Stambaugh Auditorium.

The future remains bright for Fifth Harmony, which is heavily inspired by Mariah Carey.

Jauregui said she’s yet to meet the platinum singer but giggles at the idea.

When it’s pointed out there are now young fans also getting goose bumps thinking about meeting a member of Fifth Harmony, Jauregui said, “It’s crazy. You kind of come into this world hoping you’ll make some sort of impact in it, and it’s really cool to know that we have that platform.”