Emily West Releases New Single, 'Bitter' [LISTEN]

America's Got Talent Season 9 runner-up Emily West has released a new single, "Bitter."

The song is the first single off of West's upcoming album, All for You, and the Iowa native is using the tune to give listeners her take on a classic country subject: heartbreak.

"I was in a bad state when I was writing it," she tells Rolling Stone Country. "I was going through a breakup. I was in London writing with dear friends of mine, Jodi Marr and Julian Emery. Julian started playing this really cool guitar lick that kind of reminded me of Celtic music. The melody started floating out, and it was this Jessica Rabbit kind of melody. I didn't know what it was forming into."

West says that "Bitter" is a slightly different offering than what she usually plays live, but she hopes that it will be a good match for radio and help her translate her talents to a wider audience.

"It's my first attempt to write a roll-your-windows-down kind of song," she says. "I write more kind of vaudeville stuff for my live shows, and this song is a little bit more uptempo and radio friendly. The title is very bitter, but it's bittersweet when you think back to it, because everything works out. It's an empowering song."

After coming in second on America's Got Talent last year (magician Mat Franco took home the top prize), West signed a record deal with Sony Masterworks. All for You was partially funded by a PledgeMusic campaign, and the label will be releasing it this summer. The singer says that the new album encompasses multiple parts of her musical personality and that the project probably won't help anyone pigeonhole her into a specific genre.

"The curse with me has always been, 'Where does she belong? Is she a pop writer? Is she a Broadway star? Is she a country star?'" she says. "It's frustrating because I feel like I'm so many things. This record captures every personality as an artist that I am. It's so freeing to have something out in the world that is very different and that still fits. They all somehow morph into the same person. I have a lot of originals on there that I'm really proud of, along with the [America's Got Talent] cover songs that we've done."

West previously released a self-titled album on Capitol Records in 2007 and an EP, Rocket Science, in 2014.

Emily West Releases New Single, ‘Bitter’ [LISTEN]