Ciara reinforces her passion for music with 'CiCi.' The album is her first since 2019

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.

One of the preeminent stage performers in her class and lauded for her dancing, Ciara owns smashes like “Goodies” which topped the Billboard 100, “Oh” featuring Ludacris, “Body Party,” and “Promise.” Four albums reached the Billboard 200 top 10, including 2006’s “Ciara: The Evolution” which hit No. 1.

In an era where music is often released rapidly, Ciara's leisurely pace has been questioned by fans and critics, wondering if she’s traded her love for music for a perceived socialite lifestyle with her Super Bowl-winning husband, Russell Wilson.

“I feel like I don’t have to explain anything to anybody,” said the “Ride” singer, who's recently released collaborations with several Asian artists. “Not every year has been about music. And sometimes, it’s been about me just growing as a human. Sometimes, it’s been about me finding my way obviously as a mom, and then I have family now and my husband, being there for him. These are all real things.”

It’s a perception she aims at on “Run It Up” with BossMan Dlow, singing, “No matter how many points I put up on the board, you know they gon’ hate / I’m in a league of my own, I’m a wife and a mom / … You ain't gotta worry, you know that we straight.”

“I go from the stage to the classroom. I go from the classroom to the football field to support my husband. Then, I got on my schedule we’re gonna go school shopping tomorrow,” said the 39-year-old who wrote on every song. “That’s how my life is, but I would not have it any other way.”

Other standout tracks include the previously released slow jam “Ecstasy” which she later remixed with Normani and Teyana Taylor, and the feel good “Drop Your Love,” sampling “Love Come Down” from Evelyn “Champagne” King. She continued her two-step groove on “This Right Here,” recreating the nostalgic magic with Pha and resurfacing his memorable “Ci-araaa!” ad-lib.

“It’s always been love with Jazze and I … there was behind-the-scenes type of stuff that was beyond he and I,” referring to the producer who crafted her megahit “1,2 Step” with Missy Elliott. “People want the classic him. They want me to be me, too, in that moment. And so, I feel like we accomplished that.”

Becoming one of the first celebrities to gain Benin citizenship as part of a recent law by the small West African nation granting rights to descendants of enslaved people, Ciara hopes to shed light on the country, as well as the continent which has exploded globally in the music market thanks to Afrobeats.

She’s also expanding her Why Not You Foundation, the nonprofit founded with Wilson in 2014 to help disadvantaged youth with educational and personal development resources. With Why Not You centers already in Atlanta and Pittsburgh, they plan to expand in the New York-New Jersey area. Wilson signed with the New York Giants during the offseason.

“Success to me is yes, putting out music. Being the best artist I can be, hopefully being known as one of the best to ever do it … But it’s not solely in that,” she said. “People lose themselves because they didn’t live. I don’t want to be that girl – I’m not going to be that girl." ___

Follow Associated Press entertainment journalist Gary Gerard Hamilton at @GaryGHamilton on all his social media platforms.