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Lea Michele: Music "Has Been the Greatest Medicine" in Wake of Cory Monteith's Death—Exclusive Video

Watch: Glee sits down with E! News to discuss her new album, Louder, and how "something beautiful came out of a very difficult time"

By Natalie Finn Feb 28, 2014 4:01 AMTags
Watch: Lea Michele Reflects on Difficult Year

Lea Michele is more thankful than ever for the love she has had in her life.

"It was a very difficult year, yet somehow something beautiful came out of it," the Glee actress said in an exclusive video interview with E! News to discuss her new album, Louder, which officially drops March 4.

Louder was supposed to be out sooner, but they needed to postpone, resulting in more songs being included that are close to the stage-and-screen star's heart.

"During that time we discovered 'Cannonball,' and Sia and I wrote 'If You Say So,'" Michele recalled, "and it's really the story of the past two years of my life. The incredible, beautiful, happiest moments of my life, as well as the worst.

"And my goal in all of this," she added, "was to make an album that was honest and was true to me. I didn't record one word that I didn't feel I could relate to, whether or not I wrote it or it was given to me. These are words, these are parts of me. And so I'm very proud of it, and it is something beautiful that did come out of a very difficult time."

Her costar and longtime boyfriend Cory Monteith died last July of a drug overdose, an eye-opening tragedy that changed Michele forever.

"If I've learned anything from this past year, it's that you have one life, and I didn't really understand what that really meant until recently," she told us. "And you have to live your life to the fullest. You have to love as hard as you can...and live as hard as you can live, ‘cause we just have one life."

And now, after releasing a number of songs early for her fans, Louder is finally coming out in full. So, what's the song that's nearest and dearest to the artist's heart?

"I would say that my favorite song is definitely 'You're Mine,'" she said. "It's really about making that commitment in a relationship, about at the beginning being scared to take the leap, but when once you take it, committing yourself to another person and saying, you know, this is it, for life.

"And I'm so grateful to get to say that I experienced true love, and I think that a lot of people, unfortunately, don't. They'll go a whole lifetime without experiencing it, and I did, and I consider myself so lucky that I got to. And when I listen to ‘You're Mine,' it takes me back to the best time in my life. So whenever I need to remember that, I play that song. I think that that's the power of music. It's therapy. It gives you whatever it is you need in that moment, and it's really been the greatest medicine for me."

And we wish nothing but healing and happiness for Michele moving forward.

Don't miss Lea Michele on E! News tonight at 7 p.m. & 11:30 p.m.