After a fifteen-year hiatus, 90’s pop princess Jessica Simpson took the stage again this week — trading her stilettos for cowboy boots to showcase her musical comeback with the upcoming release of a new country album.
Jessica Simpson’s Emotional Return to Country Music
On Wednesday, backed by a live band and a duo of backup singers, Simpson performed a set of six songs during the annual music industry conference, South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, Texas.
The following day, Simpson expressed her gratitude on Instagram, sharing video from the performance, thanking her fans for their support — and promising “more to come.”
“It was an emotional coming back home to the best part of myself,” she posted. “Thank you for embracing me.”
Simpson also made a surprise appearance on Thursday at Willie Nelson’s ranch in Spicewood, Texas, for the annual Luck Reunion Festival. During the show, she performed her cover of Nancy Sinatra’s “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’” — a single released in 2005 for the film “The Dukes of Hazzard,” in which she appeared alongside Willy Nelson.
Jessica Simpson Urges Fans to be ‘Empowered by Heartbreak’
In her first collection of songs since her 2009 holiday album, “Happy Christmas,” Simpson will celebrate the debut her new EP “Nashville Canyon: Part 1” on March 21. In February, the singer and songwriter offered fans a preview with the release of the album’s lead single, “Use My Heart Against Me.”
And just this week, she released another advance tract, “Leave,” one which Simpson calls a deeply personal song — written following the separation from her estranged husband Eric Johnson. According to an Entertainment Tonight source, “Jessica wanted to shared her truth and making music about her relationship experience has been therapeutic, raw and real for her.”
“I urge everyone to allow yourselves to be empowered by heartbreak,” she said in a post to Instagram following the song’s release. “To never stay quiet with your needs and to always know that love should demand respect.”
From Pop Hits to Tuna Twists: Jessica’s Journey
The Texas-born singer, 44, rose to fame in the late 1990s with her debut single, “I Wanna Love You Forever,” which was a part of her multi-platinum debut album, “Sweet Kisses,” and its release swiftly made her a pop music sensation.
She gained further popularity in 2003 through the MTV reality show “Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica,” showcasing her marriage to then-husband Nick Lachey. The show made her cultural phenomenon when, after analyzing a can of Chicken of the Sea tuna fish, she famously asked Lachey, “Is this chicken, what I have, or is this fish? I know it’s tuna, but it says chicken.”
Throughout her career, in addition to launching a successful fashion line and penning a memoir, she’s released seven studio albums, four compilation albums, three video albums and nineteen singles. The new album is her second foray into country music. In 2008, she released “Do You Know,” which debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200.
Simpson’s latest offering, “Nashville Canyon: Part 1,” arrives on March 21.
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Jessica Simpson Shines in Country Comeback at SXSW