Kelly Clarkson has announced her forthcoming 2023 album, which she said was inspired by her recent divorce.
After nearly seven years of marriage, the 40-year-old singer filed for divorce from Brandon Blackstock in June of 2020. It was later finalised in August 2021. The pair share two children, River, eight, and Remington, six.
Since the divorce, the 2002 American Idol winner has been candid about its emotional toll, admitting that it’s been the “hardest thing to navigate” in her life.
Now, in a new interview with Variety, Clarkson has revealed that she’s used her emotional journey as inspiration for her upcoming album.
“It’s coming out next year. And this is an important album,” she said. “I’m working on this in therapy: I have a hard time vocalising what I’m feeling sometimes, so music is helpful for me. It’s just been really healing. I recorded the record quite some time ago.”
Clarkson’s latest releases have mostly been holiday music, in addition to her 2022 summer album, Kellyoke. Meanwhile, her rendition of “9 to 5” in collaboration with Dolly Parton will release on Friday (9 September).
“When my ex and I first separated, there were many emotions. It was hard,” she explained. “My producer and I were laughing yesterday because I was like, ‘Remember that time we wrote, like, 25 songs in a week?’ A lot of those are the ones that are on the album. I literally wrote most of these almost two years ago. Then I told my label, ‘I can’t talk about this until I’ve gone through it,’ and it’s just taken some time to do that. That’s one of the reasons we’ve done a lot of Christmas stuff the past two years – because I was like, ‘Well, that’s happy!’”
She continued: “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.”
Clarkson went on to tease that she’s “definitely going to do shows” after its debut, adding: “I know there are other guys and girls out there that have been through this kind of breakup who are going to need to scream at the top of their lungs – you can come and join me.”
