In a bold move away from her Disney roots, singer-songwriter and actor Dove Cameron is set to unveil a new chapter in her career with the release of "Alchemical: Volume 1," the first part of her debut studio album.
The eight-track album, featuring the highly anticipated song "Sand," is scheduled for release on December 1, marking a significant departure from her familiar Disney star persona.
Cameron, best known for her roles in Disney's 2015 film "Descendants" and its subsequent sequels and TV spin-off, has spent much of her career reflecting on her personal growth since her early days in Hollywood.
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"Growing up in the public eye, I trained my brain to think first about what other people wanted from me rather than what I knew I needed," Cameron revealed in a recent interview.
She further said, "When you start that young and your whole life is cataloged and interpreted in a way that might not actually be reality, I think you start to look at things from an external point of view, and you start to reject your own personal experiences as being valid."
This introspection led to a pivotal moment in 2022 when Cameron released her first non-Disney hit song, "Boyfriend," a powerful expression of her identity as part of the LGBTQ+ community.
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The song, based on events from Cameron's life that shaped her sexuality, garnered attention when she performed it at the 2022 American Music Awards (AMAs) on the same night she won New Artist of the Year.
"I just decided, it's now or never," Cameron explained. "I was really grateful for how people responded. Still, obviously, there's still quite a lot of negativity around it, but I just think when it's for yourself, you can't find an issue with that."
Following the success of "Boyfriend," Cameron took the bold step of deleting all her previous songwriting work from streaming services, believing that it no longer represented her true self.
The Emmy-award-winning actor expressed that she is now in an "amazing place in her life" where she feels anything is possible. Rejecting the confines of a particular image, Cameron considers her past Disney brand and other personas in her career as "unhealthy" for her.
With "Alchemical: Volume 1," she is set to embrace a new version of herself, signaling a transformative moment in her artistic journey.
