NEW YORK— Ciara will deliver a new bundle of joy on Friday, but it’s not the fifth child her husband publicly flirts with her about. “It’s time. Honestly, I’ve been working on this album for almost five years,” said the R&B-pop superstar. “I put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears, as they would say, into this project … I literally gave birth to two babies while I was making this project, too. So, a lot has happened.”
Expanding her 2023 seven-track EP “CiCi,” it’s the Grammy winner’s first album since 2019’s “Beauty Marks,” her first as an independent artist.
“I was still actively putting out music on the project. So, it’s not like I was five years chillin’,” said the “Level Up” artist. “If I ever stop loving the process and experience, then I’ll stop. But I have so much passion for it and I just feel so fortunate that 21 years later, from my first album ‘Goodies’ to now, that I still have the same excitement I had as a little girl.”
Her eighth studio album, “CiCi” includes songs from the EP such as “How We Roll,” her 2023 Chris Brown collaboration which reached No. 1 on Billboard’s R&B digital song sales charts, “Forever” with Lil Baby and the sensual bop, “Low Key.” But the 14-track full-length record, with writing and production from Theron Thomas and J.R. Rotem, separates itself with appearances from Tyga, BossMan DLow and Busta Rhymes. Latto also joins her on “This Right Here,” an anticipated reunion with Jazze Pha who executive produced her 2004 debut, hitting No. 3 on the Billboard 200.
