Kelly Clarkson Confirms Her Long-Awaited 'Divorce Album' Is On The Way
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Fans clamoring for Kelly Clarkson to return to music after shifting her focus to daytime television can finally rest easy, as the three-time Grammy winner has revealed that a new album is on the way.
In an interview with Variety published Wednesday, Clarkson said she’s putting the finishing touches on the followup to 2017’s “Meaning of Life,” and plans to release it in 2023.
Though she was short on specifics, she described her time in the studio as “really healing” following her divorce from music manager Brandon Blackstock, which was finalized in March. As it turns out, she found artistic inspiration in her romantic discord, noting that she and her producer wrote “like, 25 songs in a week,” many of which will appear on the record.
“It’s coming out next year. And this is an important album,” Clarkson explained. “I’m working on this in therapy: I have a hard time vocalizing what I’m feeling sometimes, so music is helpful for me.”
“I hadn’t really been working hardcore on an album until I needed to,” she continued. “But then the whole divorce thing happened, and I needed to write it. And then I didn’t know if I was going to release it, because you can be very angry in that state of mind. So some of the songs, they definitely cover the gamut of emotions; there’s everything on the album. It’s almost like the arc of a relationship, because the beginning is so beautiful and so sweet, and then it evolves. And sometimes it doesn’t evolve how you want.”
Kelly Clarkson will kick off the third season of "The Kelly Clarkson Show" this year. (Photo: NBC via Getty Images)
Clarkson’s announcement comes just days after she celebrated the 20th anniversary of her “American Idol” victory. Over the course of those two decades, she’s released seven studio albums as well as two holiday music collections. In June, she unveiled a six-song EP of cover songs from the popular “Kellyoke” segment of “The Kelly Clarkson Show,” which kicks off its third season this fall.
Numerous outlets have already branded Clarkson’s forthcoming record a “divorce album,” based on the idea that romantic uncouplings have traditionally prompted pop music’s biggest stars to unveil their most well-received songs. Notable “divorce albums” include Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumours,” Madonna’s “Like a Prayer” and, most recently, Adele’s “30.”
Clarkson seems conscious of this, and told Variety she hopes her new music will offers listeners a sense of personal catharsis.
“The one reason that ended up making me go, ‘I should put this out’ is that most of the songs in my career that people will generally come up to me [about] are the ones that are stories inspired by my life that maybe they go through as well,” she said. “This record, I think I wrote this for a reason — not just for me, but maybe someone else can benefit from it.”
This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
