Fifth Harmony lock foursome future in stone with fierce new photo

Fifth Harmony has wasted little time in kickstarting their new career as a quartet following the departure of Camila Cabello last month (Dec16).

The girl group has officially kicked off 2017 by posting the first photo of themselves looking fierce as a foursome online.

Cabello quit the act at the beginning of December (16) to focus on a solo career, but her former bandmates made it clear at the time they would be continuing as a quartet, stating, "We are so excited for what the new year brings."

Ally Brooke, Normani Kordei Hamilton, Dinah Jane Hansen, and Lauren Jauregui dressed in all red for the new band shot and added the simple caption: "Twenty seventeen".

Fans got a final look at the group as a five-piece when a performance taped weeks before Camila left the band opened Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve on Saturday night (31Dec16). The two-song set was the singer's last performance with the group before she left.

The remaining four members announced she had quit on social media, revealing Camila had informed them "via her representatives" that she was leaving the group.

On 19 December (16), the 19-year-old issued her own statement telling fans that their version of events wasn't true and she didn't "intend to end things with Fifth Harmony this way".

Her bandmates responded on social media, telling fans, "We know you are hurt and confused, we are too. We know you want answers. And you deserve them, as you are just as much a part of this group as the four of us are."

They claimed they made several attempts to convince Camila to stay with the group for at least one more album, but she "refused" to attend group meetings.

"Over the past several months we have consistently made every effort to sit down and discuss the future of Fifth Harmony with Camila," they wrote. "After months of rejection from her and her team, these supposed lengthy conversations in fact never happened, although we pleaded. We have tried with exhausted efforts and hearts to keep this group alive as the five of us, and we want it to be very clear that unfortunately those efforts were not mutual."