Keri Hilson has a new album out, and it’s all thanks to the right “Energy.” Breaking a 15-year hiatus from music, she dropped We Need to Talk: Love on Friday after learning from the universe that it may be time to make a return.
“There was a phase during the last five years where all these serendipitous moments started happening: acting auditions, movie offers, fans walking up and saying, ‘You helped me leave an unhealthy relationship or marriage’ with songs like ‘Beautiful Mistake,"” Keri tells Billboard. “Then there were happenstance encounters with people that could help me on the business side to structure my label the way that I wanted. So I felt redemption, vindication. Energy in the universe made it so very clear that it’s time. I couldn’t deny it.”
We Need to Talk: Love chronicles her 15-year break, which she initially thought would be a year. “I had to give up music for a while,” the singer says. “I realize now I’m grateful for all of those years because I have built myself back up. It is kind of a comeback.”
She notes she learned the importance of freedom in “calling your own shots” during her break and also that she was “pretty freaking courageous.”
Keri plans to share more with two more installments of the We Need to Talk series — Drama and Redemption –coming in the near future.
Elsewhere in the interview, Keri discussed acting, which she says gives her “a longer escape” than music.
“Music can be an escape for a day or two. But while I’m creating movies, I get to pause time for much longer periods,” she explains. “It allows me to escape reality, and that’s really part of why I dove head first into it.”
Her latest film, Temptations: Fame, premieres April 26 on Lifetime.
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