Queen Latifah Hints at Releasing New Music 17 Years After Her Last Album
Queen Latifah has captivated Hollywood as an actor for a majority of her career in hits like Set It Off, Living Single, Hairspray, The Equalizer, and rom-com classics like Last Holiday. The actor is ready to head back to her music roots, teasing new music that could drop this year.
The actor's influence goes beyond the screen, as Latifah got her start as a rapper and beat-boxer in the late '80s. She released her debut album at 19 years old in 1989, titled All Hail the Queen. It's been over a decade since Latifah released new music, and she told Variety that she has plenty of demo tracks stored away.
"I am going to try and and drop something this year. I guess I have to, at least start letting some of this music out that I've been holding on my computer for so long. I play it so much that I feel like it's already out," she said.
"I think I will actually share it with the people this year. There's nothing that really sounds like me or is my style that is out there. There's bits and pieces here and there, but there's only one me, so I think I need to put some of this music out."
She adds that the possible album or released tracks will be a mix of genres like hip-hop, jazz, and soul. Latifah's last album was in 2009, titled Persona, with the track "Cue the Rain" released as the lead single. Since then, the actor sang alongside Tony Bennett in a duet for "Who Can I Turn To" for his 2011 album.
The actor and rapper hasn't released a track under her solo career. She does appear in the 2025 track "Lite It Up" alongside other known artists like Rah Digga. Since the start of her career, Latifah has been seen as an influential artist with some of her earliest tracks talking about domestic violence and street harassment. Her single "U.N.I.T.Y" became a signature track that won her a Grammy and entered the Billboard Hot 100 charts.
In 2026, Latifah was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and announced she would be a judge on The Voice. She will also step up as the host for this year's American Music Awards, 11 years since she last took the stage.
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This story was originally published May 25, 2026 at 2:36 PM.