Cynthia Erivo Gets Real About ‘Wicked: For Good,’ Coming Out & New Album ‘I Forgive You’ | Billboard Cover

Billboard cover star Cynthia Erivo is gearing up to release her new album, ‘I Forgive You.’ The actress and singer shares insights into how she created the album and discusses the differences between filming ‘Wicked’ and ‘Wicked: For Good.’ She also opens up about her queerness, the role ‘The Color Purple’ played in her journey of self-discovery, and her experiences performing on renowned stages such as Coachella and The Kennedy Center and more!

What was your favorite part of the interview? Let us know in the comments!

Stephen Daw:

Well, thanks for sitting down for this, Cynthia, I really appreciate it. I’m so excited to talk to you. First things first: Congratulations on your new album. I’ve been listening to it pretty much on repeat since they sent it to me. This is your second studio album. You put out ‘Ch. 1 Vs. 1’ back in 2021 and I know that you’ve talked a little bit about how you know you weren’t 100% satisfied with that process. Can you tell me a little bit about why that was?

Cynthia Erivo:

Well, most of it was made in the pandemic, which meant that I was apart from my producer, and though I worked with a lot of producers and a lot of writers, it was never — and they were all so lovely, and I had such a great time with each one of them — but they had different sounds, different things that they brought to it, and it didn’t feel like it was one uniform story. And it never quite felt like it was mine. This time, I felt like I could really sort of hone in on what it is that I wanted with one person, so that we could really create a sound that felt uniform to the whole thing, that felt like it was mine. I could create something that belonged to me. Yeah, that’s why it felt very, very different. 

And I know that you’ve talked in past interviews about, you know, maybe with the first album, you weren’t necessarily with the team that you’re with now, you weren’t necessarily with the right people.

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