If anyone is in the holiday spirit this year, it’s Brandy. Back in November, the R&B legend unveiled her eighth studio LP, Christmas With Brandy, a 12-track offering with a single assist from her daughter, Sy’Rai. Mere days after that release, she appeared in the Netflix film Best. Christmas. Ever! alongside Heather Graham, Matt Cedeño and Jason Biggs.

Today (Dec. 25), VIBE published a feature with Brandy, where she spoke on her reasoning behind going the holiday route for her latest body of work. “[They] have been really asking me to make a Christmas album. And I was really in the spirit,” she said. “I thought it would be a great idea to finally have one. I have seven albums out and no Christmas album. I’m like, ‘Oh, my god, I need something to connect with the fans.’ I thought this was the perfect way and the perfect holiday to do that.”

She was also asked about how she decided on the album’s mix of covers and original offerings.

“[That] was really hard, because there’s so many great Christmas songs out there,” she explained to the outlet. “And then also to have great writers coming up with different, original songs that I think can speak to a lot of different situations and circumstances that people may be going through during the holidays.”

Later in the interview, Brandy assured readers that, once she’s done pushing Christmas With Brandy, more can be expected from her in the near future.

“We’re working those plans out right now. Just trying to make sure we can line up the appropriate things to do for the album. I definitely want to promote it, so people can really love it and fall in love with it. I haven’t performed in a long time, so I’m looking forward to seeing what that feels like again.”