Dove Cameron says Columbia Records blocked her album for years despite being finished

Dove Cameron has revealed that her long awaited debut album was completed several times but repeatedly blocked from release by Columbia Records. The singer and former Disney star made the candid admission while discussing her career timeline, noting that although she first appeared on the Billboard charts in 2013 and released her debut single in 2019, her full length record has been delayed for years.

Speaking about the frustration, Dove Cameron said she had been writing and planning an album for as long as she had been signed to the label. She explained that the project was not stalled because it was unfinished or deemed unready. Instead, she described a pattern of being told “not now” despite having material prepared.

“I’m going to be honest, I have been talking about writing and planning an album for as long as I had been signed with my label,” she said. “There was a very long stretch of time where they simply would not greenlight the album. It was done multiple times.”

The Boyfriend singer added that she was unsure whether executives had even fully listened to some of the music. According to Dove Cameron, the delay was never clearly explained. “I don’t even know if they heard some of the music. I think it was just like, not now, not now, not now. God knows why. I have no idea why,” she admitted.

Over the years, Dove Cameron steadily released standalone singles, building a distinct dark pop identity and cultivating a loyal online fanbase. Eventually, she confronted the label about the situation. She told them she had effectively released an album’s worth of singles already without being permitted to package them into a cohesive debut record.

“I’ve released an album’s worth of singles,” she said. “I was just begging, begging, begging openly, being like, what the hell? Where’s the album?”

That persistence appears to have paid off. The singer confirmed that Columbia Records has now agreed to move forward with the album release, though she acknowledged she is not entirely sure what prompted the shift behind the scenes. She remains cautiously optimistic about the future.