Julianne Hough is back with new music!
After almost 10 years, the America’s Got Talent judge has debuted a new song, “Transform.” The 31-year-old star premiered her new track on the NBC competition show’s season 14 finale on Wednesday night, taking the stage to perform for millions of viewers alongside dancers V. Unbeatable.
Hough, who first rose to fame as a professional dancer on Dancing With the Stars, later crossed over into music, dropping her self-titled debut album in 2008. Two years later, Hough released her song “Is That So Wrong,” which would be her last new single for almost a decade. In the years to follow, Hough focused on her budding acting career and later returned to DWTS as a judge.
Now, Hough is ready to return to music, sharing an inspiring post on Instagram about her new single on Wednesday.
“When I started doing music 10 years ago, I was a performer by nature. I wanted to be on stage, I wanted to sing, I wanted to dance – I wanted to pour my heart out. And I did it, but there was always a piece that felt inauthentic, because I was just PUSHING to get people to LIKE and ACCEPT me,” Hough wrote. “At one point I actually just gave up on my music because I found myself constantly comparing myself to other artists. Being the competitor I was, if I wasn’t winning, I was losing. If you/I looked at the reality of what was happening, I was absolutely crushing it. But that was that. I made the call and let music fall to the side – and in doing so, I abandoned the artist in me and went further and further into the performer.”
Then, about two years ago, something “shifted” for Hough.
“By doing the internal work that needed doing, I found myself (unintentionally!) connecting back to my artist,” she explained in her post. “Just by simply owning all the ‘ugly’ parts of my life. The second I started going into that black hole of what it all represented and really unpacking all of the survival tactics of protection – of not feeling hurt, or like a failure, or like a fraud, I finally got to feel what it truly felt like to be RAW and vulnerable and to see all of these parts for the first time with no judgement.”
“For two years I have been picking those pieces up, nurturing them – and transforming them. I’m not trying to change who I am or suppress those parts of me anymore – but instead, I acknowledge them, take them and TRANSFORM them. As I was doing that in my daily life, I realized all of a sudden that my creativity, my life blood, the entire essence of WHO I AM was coming ALIVE,” Hough continued. “This is the first time I truly feel like an artist and not a performer simply because everything I’m saying is TRUTH – and I’m not afraid anymore if everyone will like it because it’s just, ME!! it makes me smile it makes me feel alive.”
Hough added that she’s “so excited” to share this part of her, adding it’s “just the beginning.”
Watch Hough’s performance of her new single “Transform” above!
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