Other than her 2021 holiday album, When Christmas Comes Around, and her 2022 Kellyoke EP, Kelly Clarkson hasn’t put out a regular album of all-new material since 2017’s The Meaning of Life. Kelly’s been talking about releasing new music for quite some time now, but now she promises that 2023 is the year that we’ll finally get to hear it — and explains why it’s taken so long.

“I have an album coming out this year — I swear! I know I’ve been talking about it … and there’s a really cool way we’re releasing it that we’re formulating right now,” she said during an Instagram Live session that was posted on The Kelly Clarkson Show‘s YouTube channel.

Kelly explained the reason for the delay was that she needed to be emotionally ready to discuss her new music, because a lot of it was inspired by her divorce from husband Brandon Blackstock.

“I just had to be over it, through it, all around it,” she said. “I had to get past it in order to talk about it, because I know people want to ask me about the album and songs, and I just feel like … I needed a minute.“

But the delay ended up having a silver lining, according to Kelly.

“I’m glad I took the minute because … one of the last songs written for the album might be one of the singles that’s coming out … it’s really cool,” she explained. “And it’s a great arc of, like, a whole relationship. So it’s not all sad or mad, but that’s in there. And it’s coming out. I swear it’s coming out.”

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