I’ve written exactly how I feel – Singer Louise says new album is ‘best’ one yet
She spoke during a panel talk, The Woman I Am, an Apple Music and Beats event in London.
Singer Louise Redknapp has said her upcoming album is the best one she has ever made.
The former Eternal star, 50, who is professionally known as Louise, will release her fifth studio album, Confessions, in May this year.
It has seen her collaborate with names including singer and songwriter MNEK, as well as songwriter and producer Jon Shave, who co-wrote a number of tracks on Charli XCX’s Grammy and Brit-winning album Brat.
She said: “I released my first record, what 30 years ago and I think there’s something about when you’ve been doing it that long and had time off to have kids and everything. It’s an amazing industry to be in, but you do have a lot of ups and downs…
“Going through your personal life in public is tough. So I think my proudest moment is 30 years on, at the age I am, and just sort of feeling that I’ve just made the best album I’ve ever made.
“I think it’s the first time I’ve made an album where I’ve written exactly how I feel rather than what people have expected me to be.”
She was speaking as part of panel talk The Woman I Am, an Apple Music and Beats event in London which was part of their International Women’s Month celebrations.
The panel, hosted by Apple Music 1’s Rebecca Judd, also included singer Jessie J, businesswoman and former The Saturdays singer Rochelle Humes, rapper Eve and Nigerian singer, songwriter and actress Tiwa Savage.
Louise rose to fame as part of girl group Eternal, who enjoyed a string of hits in the 1990s, including chart-topper I Wanna Be The Only One with BeBe Winans in 1997, with other hits including Stay and Just A Step From Heaven.
Their debut album, Always & Forever, hit number two on the UK charts in 1993 and went four times platinum.
The original line-up was sisters Easther and Vernie Bennett, Kelle Bryan and Louise Redknapp, previously known as Louise Nurding.
She left the band in 1995 before the second album was released and embarked on a solo career, with hits including her debut solo album, Naked.
Talking about going solo, she told Judd: “I think I had got to a stage where being in the band, for me, it was really impacting such a huge part of my personal wellbeing. I never had any plans to go and be a solo artist.
“I never left that studio. We were making a song with Mary J Blige at the time, and I was just so unhappy, my confidence had hit such a sort of rock bottom that I actually didn’t have any plans, and all I knew was that leaving the band, I felt a huge sense of relief.
“So I think, you know, it was tough after when I realised what I’d done and the fight I was gonna have to, I actually didn’t even know if I wanted to do music at that stage.”
Explaining how being part of a group means your life “really isn’t your own”, she said: “It wasn’t even about the music, it wasn’t about being a solo artist, being there on my own, it was just stupid things of being in control of my own life again, what I just had really missed out on.
“Stupid things if I wanted to take my mum on tour with me, or a boyfriend to come and stay in the hotel, if I was on tour, I could do those things where I wasn’t allowed to do those things as part of the band.
“But I did miss the camaraderie of, being in Eternal was great… The girls were beyond talented.
“Every time we would be on stage together, the hairs on the back of my neck would still stand up. So I really missed that, but it wasn’t worth sacrificing my own kind of wellbeing for any level of fame.”
In 2021 she took part in ITV’s The Masked Dancer, a spin-off to hit series The Masked Singer, and performed dressed as Flamingo.
Prior to that in 2016 she took part in Strictly Come Dancing, and partnered with Kevin Clifton reached the final of the popular BBC One dance show.
The singer split from former England footballer Jamie Redknapp in 2017 after 19 years of marriage.
The event also supported Apple Music’s Alpha playlist, which aims to redefine the meaning of a woman’s power, and features artists including American rapper and singer Doechii, American singers Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan, and former Little Mix star Jade Thirlwall, who performs solo as JADE.
