Jessica Simpson announces 1st new single in years. What we know about her long-awaited music comeback.

Jessica Simpson is forging a new path forward in the wake of her split with husband Eric Johnson — and it involves music.

After teasing a musical comeback for years now, Simpson announced the name of the song, “Use My Heart Against Me,” and a release date in an Instagram video on Feb. 12.

She shared a snippet of herself singing the song, which includes the lines “Go on, use my heart against me” and “Don’t miss you / Don’t confuse my love.” She wrote that it has “soul vibes.” It comes out Feb. 21.

Simpson also shared behind-the-scenes commentary about the apparent breakup anthem from people involved with the project. One promised “a different side of Jessica,” another said she’s ready to “take control of their own artistry,” and a third said “she’s ready to — and can do — whatever she wants to do.”

It was noted that an album is forthcoming, but no timing was given on the full release.

An OG aughts pop star

Many people today associate Simpson with her eponymous fashion brand, which includes clothing, shoes and housewares. In 2021, she regained complete ownership of the billion-dollar line and runs it along with her mother, Tina.

However, the Texas native burst onto the scene as a singer. The daughter of a minister, she first recorded Christian music, but at age 17 she was signed with Columbia Records for a pop album. Sweet Kisses was released in 1999, and Simpson came up alongside Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, with the industry pitfalls and vitriol that went along with it.

Her rise in music coincided with the boom of reality TV, and Simpson became a huge breakout reality TV star. Thinking a reality show would help her record sales, Simpson allowed cameras to document her short-lived marriage to fellow singer Nick Lachey of 98 Degrees, and she catapulted to stardom. Her third album, In This Skin, which came out in 2003, the same year as Newlyweds: Nick & Jessica, hit No. 2 on the music charts and sold a whopping 7 million copies.

Among the many opportunities dangled in front of Simpson at that point waS acting, and she starred in 2005’s The Dukes of Hazzard and released her popular "These Boots Are Made for Walkin’” cover on the soundtrack. The same year, the Jessica Simpson Collection was born and it thrived.

Simpson continued recording music, but it never hit the way In This Skin did. The bestselling album was 2006’s A Public Affair, which sold a million copies. A country music crossover album, Do You Know, sold 173,000 copies, and a 2010 Christmas cover album sold just 28,000.

The last single Simpson released was a cover of Nothing But Thieves’ "Particles" in 2021. It wasn’t part of an album.

Family and fashion first

In Simpson’s bestselling 2020 memoir, Open Book, she wrote that she “kept putting the music off” as she “focused on the kids and the Collection” in the 2010s. By then, she had married Johnson, an ex-NFL player, and they welcomed Maxwell in 2012, Ace in 2013 and Birdie in 2019.

“When I found the love of my life in 2010 and started my family, I could just be me,” she wrote. “I took myself out of the music industry to be normal and be the kind of mom I wanted to be.”

In the book, Simpson also wrote about masking anxiety, pain and trauma through alcohol and pills before getting sober in 2017. She began “writing and recording music in my home studio — raw and from the heart” and it “was music I was really proud of,” she wrote in the memoir.

During her book tour, she talked about being ready to release new music — singing “Amazing Grace” a capella during an interview on the Today show.

While she said “music is part of [my] journey again,” and we’ve seen many, many, many Instagram photos of her in the studio, the “Particles” cover was the only release. Her fans have constantly asked on all her social media uploads when the music would be out.

Perhaps she just needed the right inspiration. As her 10-year marriage to Johnson unraveled, which she called a “painful situation,” it has apparently been the nudge she needed. What she’s shown of “Use My Heart Against Me” sees a woman finding her voice again.

On Feb. 5, she shared photos from the studio ahead of her new single announcement and wrote, "Music bursts through my soul and makes me smile…"

Perhaps we’ll even get a sister act. Last year Simpson’s sister, Ashlee, hit the stage after an even longer break from music making. Simpson commented on her sibling’s post, “Let’s tour together and take the kids!”

But first things first … let’s get that single out.