Kelly Clarkson officially revealed last week that she will release a new album in 2023 — her first since her divorce from ex-husband Brandon Blackstock. The singer announced the news in a lighthearted live video, and she says much of the album will be inspired by the split, but it won't all be "sad or mad."
"It took a minute for me to be able to release this album because I just had to be over it, through it, all around it. I had to get past it in order to talk about it," she says of the album creation. "I know people want to ask me about the album and songs and I just feel like I needed a minute, so I'm glad it took a minute because we actually ended up writing — one of the last songs written for the album might be one of the singles that we come out with."
"It's really cool and it's a great arc of a whole relationship," she adds. "It's not all sad or mad, but that's in there."
Without giving too much away, Clarkson also expressed excitement about the album photoshoot, calling the cover shot "incredible."
"It felt like me and I was just able to be really free and be myself in this shoot and really explain, visually, what's happening sonically on the album. It's really freakin' cool," she teases. "This, you're going to want on vinyl just for the picture alone that's going to be the cover that's incredible that's not photoshopped. I'm going to lead with that."
The album will be the first album of original music Clarkson has released since her 2017 project, Meaning of Life. She shared with Variety in September that the album was written during an emotional time in the wake of her divorce, and there were times she wrote "25 songs in a week." In the meantime between studio albums, Clarkson has released Christmas songs and a Christmas album called When Christmas Comes Around.
