NEED TO KNOW
Fans have waited years for Lauren Jauregui’s debut album, and it’s finally coming.
The singer-songwriter released “Ego” earlier this month as the first single from her upcoming full-length body of work, which will mark the first since her solo career launched in 2018 after she and the other three members of Fifth Harmony went their separate ways.
“I have all my songs. They’re pretty much done. They still need to be mixed and mastered, and I still got to make some visuals,” Jauregui, 29, tells PEOPLE. “Your girl’s doing this independently, so it’s just piece by piece.”
Dana Trippe
Despite previously putting out two EPs, 2021’s Prelude and 2023’s In Between, the prospect of releasing an album is “nerve-wracking” for Jauregui — and it’s been in the works for quite a long time. “The latest song on this project, I wrote in February,” she details, “and then the oldest song on this project, I wrote in 2018.”
Throughout the process, she’s played the music “all the time” for various people in her life and gotten feedback. “I love getting a range of people’s opinion on s—,” says the musician. “I’ll sometimes play s— for an Uber driver.”
“They’ll always be so honest because they have no idea who the f— I am,” continues Jauregui. “They’ll literally be like, ‘Oh, this is really good songwriting, actually,’ or they’ll say whatever they say to me, but it’s a very genuine opinion. Thankfully, nothing too crazy bad, which is great.”
It’s reassuring to know even complete strangers enjoy her music. “That’s why I know I’m not completely failing at my job because they do f— with it a little bit,” she quips.
The first taste of the album, “Ego,” features lyrics about searching for honesty amid a difficult point of a relationship. The alternative pop track marks a shift for Jauregui, who’s mainly created across pop, dance and Latin genres in the past.
However, she’s loved rock music since she “was a tiny little girl listening to my dad play drums.”
Acts like Paramore, Fall Out Boy and Death Cab For Cutie, plus the rockier material of pop stars from Kelly Clarkson to Demi Lovato, were a huge part of my essence growing up and just music taste in general,” says Jauregui.
“Energetically, it’s the vein that I’m in,” she adds. “I’ve done a lot of evolving and growing over the past four years, and also, in this world that we’re living in, I’m very observant. I’m very outspoken, and it definitely is reflected in the music.”
