Ruben Studdard to release new album next week

January 29, 2014 By Mark Franklin 0

Ruben Studdard is about to release his newest album, “Unconditional Love.”

The 11-track effort will come out Tuesday, the same day the Season 15 finale of “The Biggest Loser” airs.

Ruben Studdard will release a new album — “Unconditional Love” — next Tuesday.

Ruben was a contestant on the show. Though eliminated more than a month ago, he managed to drop 70 pounds, going from 462 to 392.

As for the music, “Unconditional Love” is liberally sprinkled with cover songs.

Those include Paul McCartney’s “My Love,” The Carpenters’ “Close to You,” Bonnie Raitt’s I Can’t Make You Love Me” and Hoagy Carmichael’s “The Nearness of You.”

Ruben told RyanSeacrest.com that one of his favorite songs on the album is a cover of Donny Hathaway’s “Love, Love, Love.”

Another cover — “If This World Were Mine” — features a duet between Ruben and Donny Hathaway’s daughter, Lalah.

The lead single is a new song, “Meant to Be,” that you can listen to below.

And if you’d like to hear the full album, head over to RyanSeacrest.com.

“Unconditional Love” is Ruben’s first album for Verve Records and is co-produced by David Foster.

It’s also his first album since March 2012’s “Letters from Birmingham.” That disc debuted at number 72 on the Billboard 200 and spent two weeks on the chart.