Angel city reborn: Lara Mcallen returns on her own terms

I don’t think Lara McAllen expected to revisit Love Me Right with this much fire in her lungs. When we sat down to talk about the 2025 rework of the Angel City classic, it didn’t feel like nostalgia. It felt like reclamation.

She’s not chasing a comeback; she’s finishing a sentence she wasn’t allowed to write back in 2003.

“I was very young when I was selected to front the Angel City project,” she tells me, and there’s no bitterness in her voice, just clarity. “I worked so hard, long hours, late nights promoting the singles. Often feeling quite vulnerable on the road. But when it came to the big decisions, I was allowed very little say.” She pauses. “I didn’t feel like an artist, I felt like a model who did as she was told.”

That’s what makes this new version of Love Me Right hit differently. It’s not just a reboot; it’s a declaration. Lara isn’t revisiting her past, she’s reclaiming it—with sharper instincts, a stronger voice, and a renewed appetite for joy.

“Singing it again with the new instrumental was just a lot more fun,” she says. “I felt like it needed a higher energy and a bit more sass.”

That sass comes through loud and clear, thanks in part to the chemistry she found with A-Tribe.

“It was the easiest thing in the world,” she says. “After one conversation they knew exactly what I was getting at. The very first demo that came back to me was totally aligned with my hopes for the new record.”

And when she says they “added some extra vocal sass at the end of the record as the cherry on top,” you can tell this isn’t a woman settling for someone else’s vision anymore. This is Lara calling the shots, steering the sound, and—finally—being heard.

She’s taken over a decade away from the scene, but it wasn’t silence. It was recovery. It was processing. And it was heartbreakingly human.

“Just before my grandmother died, she told me I had to promise to sing again because she knew there was a part of me that wasn’t complete without it,” Lara shares.

“That gave me the push I needed to care less about failure and seek out the genuine joy I get from creating music.”

Coming back to such a defining song wasn’t easy. “There was that fear of potential failure whispering in your ear,” she admits.

“It was a big tune and this time I was bringing it back under my own steam.” But she knew the new version deserved daylight. “There was too much of a feel-good vibe to not let it loose into the world.”

One thing that’s changed drastically since the early 2000s is how she navigates the industry. “You can’t take things personally. You find your people. And you focus on having your own journey with those that are cheering you on.”

Part of that new journey is visual. The Love Me Right video doesn’t chase trends. It leans into who Lara has always been.

“My roots are in musical theatre, I was a stage school child, a trained dancer,” she says.

“I love the show… I love the theatre. When we made the video, it was all about embracing that and doing what I know.”

She knows this isn’t just a glossy re-entry into dance-pop. It’s a self-funded, self-driven statement of presence.

“I hope it shows I have guts,” she says.

“No one gives you a leg up in this business. I have had to fight my way back in. And getting this project off the ground myself, without that same machine behind me that I had the first time, is ballsy!”

If she could talk to her 2003 self—the girl who sang the original Love Me Right while others pulled the strings—she wouldn’t tell her to be tougher. She’d tell her to rest.

“I’d tell the exhausted girl in 2009 to just take a holiday,” she says. “Quitting music was a step too far.”

And now? She’s back—not to relive the past, but to finally live it right.

Listen to ‘Love Me Right (2025)’ Here