MashBlur

For a brief moment, there was a man on stage during the kickoff show for Fifth Harmony's 7/27 tour on Coney Island in New York City.
He kicked a few beach balls that had made their way onto the stage back into the crowd, and quickly disappeared into the night, barely registering in the thunderous roar of girl power.
In the crowd, girls in their brand new, baby pink tour baseball caps witnessed the reemergence of the pop girl group as an unstoppable force of empowerment.
The group's 2016 hit, "Work From Home," was the first song from a girl group to crack the Billboard top ten in eight years, but before all that came plenty of humiliation. Yes, Dinah-Jane Hansen was a shark in The Little Mermaid, and it's possible to screw up that minor of a role.
Ahead of their gig headlining VH1's Save the Music benefit show on August 27, Mashable caught up with 5H to talk about some of their favorite pre-fame moments on stage. The girls were all quick to laugh at their earliest screw ups — and a few that aren't so far in the distant past. We now know you can absolutely pee on the X-Factor stage and go on to be nominated for a VMA.


Ally Brooke:
 I was in a talent show when I was in elementary school, and one of my songs was "What Dreams are Made Of" from The Lizzie McGuire Movie. I was so excited. I was killing it and getting a great crowd response, and the end of my performance, I had glitter ready in my hand, so when the song ended, I would be like, bam. But the glitter just fell. It’s on home video somewhere. It was fun, though, you get to do what you love and you have your friends and family support you out there, and I think that’s an important thing to provide for kids.


Normani Hamilton: I’ve been dancing since I was three, so I was like a competition kid, and I was doing my first solo on my birthday. My mom had begged my dance teacher to let me do a solo, since I had always been in group numbers. But I wanted the opportunity to be on stage by myself and showcase what I could do, so for my first dance competition, my grandma made my costume. I was set. I practiced but I got so nervous before I went on stage that I cried. I cried before I even went out on stage. But when I went out on stage, I forgot my dance routine, so I ran offstage, asked my dance teacher, ran back on, and finished it. I actually won, because they let me do a redo.
Lauren Jaruegei:  At the talent show in my ninth grade year, I did a Lady Gaga medley, and I dressed up like her. I sang a "Poker Face" and "Speechless" mashup.
Camilla Cabello: I was in fourth grade. I was always trying to get into arts extra-curricular activities. When I was in fourth grade, I auditioned for choir, and we had to sing "America the Beautiful" in front of our teacher, and I got so nervous that I got a massive brain fart and forgot the words. A few days after, there would be a sheet of all the students that made it outside of the classroom, and I just went and looked for my name, and it wasn’t there. I didn’t make it. But in fifth grade, I auditioned again for choir and I did make it.
Another time, we were doing The Little Mermaid musical, and I got the shark. Literally my only job was to walk across stage, and I walked across the stage for the wrong part. I walked on stage, gasped, and walked off.
Dinah-Jane Hansen: When I was on X-Factor, I peed on stage. I was trying to tell the production manager backstage before I went on, “I really have to pee."
I kept telling the girls, Ally was next to me. They asked, 'Can you wait five minutes?" Twenty minutes tick by and I was like, "I need to pee." Right before the doors open, I’m waiting. I’m waiting for my pee to go away, and it started dripping down my leg, and I performed live with pee on my legs. No one noticed!