Here’s Camila Cabello’s First Post-5H Performance

We have reached another milestone in the post-Dec. 18 5H era: Camila Cabello appeared on a daytime talk show as a solo artist. On Monday’s episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Cabello and Machine Gun Kelly treated the audience to a rousing rendition of their single, “Bad Things.” This Ellen appearance is not Cabello's first time onstage without 5H, but it is the first time she's been onstage since severing ties with 5H.

On New Year’s Eve, Fifth Harmony appeared on Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest. As a five-piece. Yes, two weeks after Cabello’s departure, 5H's original five members were on the NYE program. No, it was not an illusion. No, it was not a temporary reunion. No, it was not sorcery. No it was not a hologram. It was a pre-taped performance.

As Cabello, Ally Brooke Hernandez, Normani Kordei, Lauren Jauregui, and Dinah Jane Hansen rang in 2017 with bangers like “Work Form Home,” the specter of the quintet loomed overhead; the pre-recorded mini-concert was The Ghost of Popmas Past. Cabello was no longer a part of the group, but for one more night, we could sort of pretend like the Instagram statements and the fallout and the lineup shakeup never transpired.

But a few weeks later, it happened: Fifth Harmony sang as a foursome for the first time at the 2017 People’s Choice Awards. As the remaining members of 5H crushed their biggest hit to date, the specter shrugged and said, "I suppose we can't pretend anymore, eh?" I do not know your story, but that PCA performance was the moment Cabello’s departure felt really real to me.

And now Cabello's on Ellen without 5H. And her departure feels really, really real.

Cabello is Miss Movin' On, 5H is Miss Movin' On, and I suppose I should be Miss Movin' On, too.