Paris Hilton on sliving her way back to pop stardom: 'This is just the beginning'

Eighteen years after "Stars Are Blind" — and just weeks after a fire on the set of her new music video — the heiress returns with her sophomore album. She says another is already underway.

"That's hot" doesn't begin to describe the carnage that preceded the release of Paris Hilton's new album, Infinite Icon.

In August, with Lance Bass and Heidi Klum somewhere nearby, disaster struck on the set of the 43-year-old former reality star's "BBA" music video when her trailer burst into flames.

While the fire raged on, Hilton’s entourage chose to keep her in the dark to avoid stressing her out. But she was confused. "We were about to start getting ready for the closeup shots, and then I was like, 'Where's my whole team? I just need lip gloss, a touch-up,'" she tells Entertainment Weekly two weeks after the crisis.

When a videographer broke the news to her, she thought it was some sick prank. But it was true. "The trailer exploded," she says. "Everything was destroyed." Well, almost everything. Though custom costumes, designer jewelry, and some Motorola Razr flip phones were scorched, a few items were left unscathed. In true Paris fashion, the most notable surviving relic is both self-promotional and sentimental: an Infinite Icon–branded bag containing baby pictures of her and her longtime pal Nicole Richie.

"You can't replace those," she says. "Thank God no one was in there from my team, that I didn't bring my dogs or my babies." Bass and Klum, the video's guest stars, were unharmed as well.

Related: Lionel Richie jokes daughter Nicole and Paris Hilton 'haven't changed,' new reality show 'scares' him

It's quite symbolic, really — the little girl in the images is such an infinite icon that she'd ultimately withstand tabloid frenzies and flames. Present-day Paris had just gotten the photographs, which she'd never seen before, from her mom to digitize for her and Richie's upcoming Simple Life reunion on Peacock. But that homecoming is just one component of Hilton's renaissance; the other is her return to the recording studio for the first time in nearly 20 years.

Thank Sia for the blast of nostalgia. After Hilton performed her 2006 single "Stars Are Blind" (her only real hit) with her and Miley Cyrus for Miley’s New Year’s Eve Party broadcast last year, the "Chandelier" singer adamantly encouraged her to get back to pop, and offered to executive-produce her next project. Hilton didn't need much convincing — she says it felt "magical" being on stage again.

We've seen many sides of Paris through the years: the heiress of the Hilton hotel fortune; the party girl–turned–paparazzi fodder; the glamorous TV breakout; the savvy businesswoman; even the advocate testifying before Congress in an effort to end institutional child abuse. For many, though, "Paris Hilton, Pop Singer" isn't top of mind. But need we remind you that "Stars Are Blind" was a Billboard-charting earworm, or did that memory dissipate like a cloud of Victoria's Secret body spray in an early-aughts high school locker room?

If her self-titled debut was breathy, sexy, and relatively simple, Hilton's sophomore LP is more maximalist and lush, its layers of synthesizers shimmering like a crystal-encrusted Birkin bag. It features melodic ballads ("Fame Won't Love You," featuring Sia) and affirmations via club anthems ("BBA" — a.k.a. "Bad Bitch Academy" — featuring Megan Thee Stallion). Meant to be a "self-reflective" survey of Hilton’s life, "exploring themes of fame, female empowerment, mental health, and motherhood," per the album's press release, Infinite Icon is both an extension of her pop culture persona and a work of first-person revisionist history.

"I just wanted it to be introspective and deeper than my first album," Hilton tells EW. "I've been on such a journey, and I've been through so much of my life, and I have a lot to say… Now through my music, I'm able to tell my story."

She previously set the record straight with 2023's Paris: The Memoir, recounting her upper-crust upbringing, traumatic experiences in "troubled teen" facilities, rise to stardom, and steps to start a family. Infinite Icon further explores those life chapters, with various producers and songwriters having read her book to help complete the vision. Then there are the guest collaborators — Sia and Megan Thee Stallion, plus Meghan Trainor, Rina Sawayama, and Argentine singer María Becerra.

Related: Elle and Dakota Fanning are bringing Paris Hilton's life story to TV with A24

"I just really wanted to work with amazing women, especially that inspire me," Hilton says. She calls Megan Thee Stallion "the ultimate bad bitch," which is why when she was working on "BBA" she realized she'd be "the perfect person" to feature on the track: "I feel like any time I listen to her music, I just feel empowered."

The biggest bombshell of her belated comeback? "This is just the beginning," she says. Buzzing with newfound creative energy and inspiration, she's already cooking up her third studio album. It's still in the writing stages, but Hilton tells EW that she intends to pursue a long-running pop career.

"I know I have so many other projects and business endeavors… but I told everyone that music is the most important thing to me," she says. "That's the thing that brings me the most happiness, and I'm just happy I got to put my all into this year and a half."

"I'll continue being the business boss bitch that I am," Hilton adds, "but also a pop star… I could be a mom, I could be a businesswoman, I could be an artist, I could be a singer, I could be so many things… I feel like you can do it all." The possibilities are infinite.

Infinite Icon is out now. Watch the new video for "BBA (Bad Bitch Academy)" below.

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.