Nicole Kidman takes center stage in the music video for Troye Sivan’s new single, “She’s the Best,” which dropped today. The track is the title song from Sivan’s upcoming album, also titled She’s the Best, set for release on October 9. This new collection of songs arrives roughly three years after his 2023 album, which featured hits like “Rush,” “One of Your Girls,” and “Got Me Started.”

Sivan’s new album explores the emotional extremes he’s experienced, from the exhilaration of performing to the solitude that often follows. He described this duality at a Los Angeles listening party last week, explaining that the album has “two, kind of, sides.” One side captures the fantasy of being a pop star on stage, while the other delves into a more intimate and unsettled feeling, carrying “this really deep…sense of longing.” Together, these songs tell “the complete story” of the past three years of his life.

The artist has playfully dubbed She’s the Best a “very albumy album,” meant to be heard as a cohesive whole. It continues to explore tensions that have defined his life, including those between femininity and masculinity, loneliness and belonging, and the person he was raised to be versus the gay idol he has become. While writing the title track, “She’s the Best,” Sivan reflected on the women and femme individuals who have consistently supported him, from a high school English teacher to trans women he knows, and even “the feminine inside of me.” He realized that through career and relationship challenges, he has “always…existed in the orbit of an incredible woman and an incredible femme person.” The song itself has a “sad girl-pop vibe,” which contrasts with the album’s more house-music-inspired dance tracks.

Sivan’s embrace of femininity also marks another step in his rebellion against the socially conservative religious upbringing he experienced as an Orthodox Jew in Australia, before publicly coming out in 2013. However, this rebellion doesn’t signify a rejection of his roots; his younger brother, Tyde, is a producer on the album, making it a family affair. Since his last album and the “Sweat” tour with Charli XCX, Sivan has seen his fame grow, leading to a classic pop-star dilemma: increased fame often brings difficulty in going out and a heightened sense of loneliness. Another theme on the new album is the inherently human desire to party and let loose.