While one of Normani Kordei’s biggest hits is “Motivation,” her personal motivation comes in the form of her mother, Andrea Hamilton. “My mum is my hero, and I wouldn’t be the woman I am today without her,” Kordei said in a press release for the American Cancer Society. Over the past year, the 25-year-old singer struggled while working on new music and the steamy video for “Wild Side” due to her mum’s cancer diagnosis. “This was the second time that she had to go through cancer. The first time I was four. So for it to happen all over again, in such a pivotal and heightened moment for my career . . . there’s so many moments I was like, ‘I need to be at home’ and I felt guilty for not being able to be physically there with her,” she told Power 106.
“Her strength throughout her experience has been the strength that I’ve needed honestly to even be able to allow this to even be a thought.”
“For me, this work that I was able to put out into the world really saved me, to be completely honest,” she continued. “Even just being on FaceTime with her as she’s going through her chemo and her radiation, and just wanting me to update her on how this video is going, and how the music is coming, it really got her through that. It got my family through the darkest time of our lives.”
Through the highs and lows, Hamilton has been one of Kordei’s biggest supporters. “She’s like, ‘Baby, I’m gonna be fine. What I need you to do is focus. I need you to be Normani. I need you to be the best version of yourself. I need you to continue to work hard. We gotta get this music out. We have the world to impact,'” Kordei added. “Anything that my mum says, to be completely honest, I believe . . . Her strength throughout her experience has been the strength that I’ve needed honestly to even be able to allow this to even be a thought.”
