Ciara not too long ago sat down with Associated Press to debate her new album, CiCi— her first mission in almost six years. It works as a follow-up to her 2019 album, Beauty Marks.

Released on August 22, CiCi is an expanded model of her 2023 EP of the identical identify and marks her first launch as an unbiased artist. Back in 2017, the Grammy-winning artist based her unbiased label, Beauty Marks Entertainment. “It’s time. Honestly, I’ve been working on this album for almost five years,” she tells the outlet. “I put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears, as they would say, into this project…”

The singer additionally revealed to the outlet that whereas recording CiCi, she had given delivery to 2 of her youngest kids: Win Harris and Amora Princess. “I literally gave birth to two babies while I was making this project, too. So, a lot has happened,” she mentioned.

While Ciara did take a quick reprieve to boost her ever-growing household, the singer made it clear that she wasn’t simply “chillin’” the final 5 years and had all the time “actively put out music on the project.”

With a profession spanning over twenty years, Ciara famous that she nonetheless enjoys creating music in spite of everything these years; nevertheless, if she ever occurs to “stop loving the process,” she’ll “stop.” The “Level Up” singer continued, ” I’ve a lot ardour for it and I simply really feel so lucky that 21 years later, from my first album ‘Goodies’ to now, that I nonetheless have the identical pleasure I had as somewhat woman.”

“Success to me is yes, putting out music. Being the best artist I can be, hopefully being known as one of the best to ever do it …” she provides. “But it’s not solely in that,” she mentioned. “People lose themselves because they didn’t live. I don’t want to be that girl – I’m not going to be that girl.”