Hit Songwriter Bonnie McKee Made Her Own Album, Hot City, 10 Years Ago. Now, She's Finally Releasing It (Exclusive)

McKee, who wrote No. 1 hits by Katy Perry and Britney Spears, tells PEOPLE it's "liberating" to share the 'Hot City' cover, release date and tracklist

By

Jack Irvin

Published on May 13, 2024 12:00PM EDT

Bonnie McKee attends the 66th GRAMMY Awards at Crypto.com Arena on February 04, 2024 — Bonnie McKee at the Grammys in Los Angeles in February 2024. Photo:
Neilson Barnard/Getty

Bonnie McKee is finally arriving in Hot City — 10 years after embarking on the journey.

The hit songwriter was perfectly primed for pop stardom of her own after crafting No. 1 smashes for the likes of Katy Perry and Britney Spears, but her record label didn't quite understand her vision at the time.

Following a decade of fans demanding to hear the material she would've released, McKee's taken matters into her own hands and re-recorded her album, Hot City. Now, PEOPLE can unveil the cover artwork, tracklist and release date for the long-awaited project.

"It feels really liberating. It feels like I'm finally coming full circle with it," the 40-year-old musician tells PEOPLE. "I think a lot of people in the industry — not the fans — think I'm nuts for putting something out that's so old. But I've always said a good song is a good song, and these songs always spoke to me."

McKee began working professionally as a musician in her teenage years, during which she landed a major record deal and released her debut album, 2004's Trouble. However, the project underperformed commercially and led her to get dropped.

A few years later, she landed a publishing deal and began writing songs for other musicians — which led to her ultra-successful run of radio hits, including Perry's "California Gurls," "Teenage Dream," "Part of Me" and "Roar," among others, as well as Spears' "Hold It Against Me."

At that point, McKee landed another record deal of her own with Epic Records and released the single "American Girl," a modest hit set to serve as the official launching pad for her pop career. But the label wasn't a fan of her second single, "SLAY," and plans for an album were scrapped.

McKee persevered, continuing to release her own material and write for others, but fans still wanted a taste of Hot City.

"I found a forum that was dedicated to this unreleased album that was 500 pages long that had been going for 10 years," she says. "Every time I've put something out, a single here and there over the years, they've always kept asking for these songs. And I was like, 'I'm going to give the people what they want because I want to put it out, too.'"

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Taking a page out of Taylor Swift's book, McKee re-recorded each song originally meant for the project — which will now be released independently on May 31.

Hot City will include fan-favorite songs like "SLAY," "Forever 21" and "I Wanna Call You" as well as the brand-new track "Snatched" with RuPaul's Drag Race winner Priyanka and previously released songs including "American Girl," "Sleepwalker" and "Stars in Your Heart."

See the full tracklist for McKee's Hot City album below.