Get it, mama! Ciara didn’t let anyone persuade her while recording forthcoming seventh studio album Beauty Marks. In fact, after the album's single “Level Up” was received with mixed reviews form her former record label, she went and setup her own company. The Grammy-award winning songstress stopped by On Air With Ryan Seacrest on Wednesday, May 8, and shared with Ryan Seacrest that creating her own business venture and also producing the album while pregnant with her daughter, Sienna, left her feeling more empowered than ever.
“Beauty Marks marks a special chapter in my career,” Ciara explained on-air. “Two years ago I got the chance to create my own entertainment company … and also my own record label … and my management company, so its all things encompassing me within my business world and … it's been an incredible journey.”
The track titled "Beauty Marks" itself on the album was produced by Skylar Grey and cowritten by Ciara herself and will forever hold a special place in her heart.
“It’s by far the most special song of my career, my life,” Ciara added, revealing the album also features collabs with Macklemore, Kelly Rowland and Tekno.
“I was eight months pregnant when I made most of the album," she continued. "I was taking a big leap of faith with my first move which was ‘Level Up' … that was a song that the major label that I was in the moment before I got to do this on my own told me that they didn’t see anything in the song, that they couldn’t see the vision for it and I really believed in it and ‘Level Up’ was that first move for me … and I can tell you that this week I got the confirmation of ‘Level Up’ going gold … so I’m really proud of it.”
Ciara added there’s a song for every mood on the album and that her “ultimate goal with this project is to inspire the world to inject love and make the world dance.”
Which she did a lot of in the studio while pregnant with her first daughter, Sienna Princess, with husband Russell Wilson.
“I’m so proud of this album, it reminds me of when I made my fist album Goodies,” she concluded. “I was this little girl … I had no inhibitions. I was just free and lost and I let myself go in the process … and that’s the same way I was with making this album and it felt good bouncing around the studio with my massive belly, knowing that I was carrying my first daughter, I felt so empowered.”
Listen back to the full interview in the audio above to hear more, including what it’s like to attend the Met Gala and why her son, Future Jr., wanted to walk the pink carpet with her!
Beauty Marks drops May 10.