Amy MacDonald's new music was inspired by the "darker side" of partying.

The 37-year-old singer will release her new album 'Is This What You've Been Waiting For?' in July after five years away and explained that the track 'We Survive' is about finding a good time amid the struggles in her homeland.

She told The Sun newspaper's Bizarre column: "'We Survive' was ­originally inspired by two of my ­closest friends who are absolute party animals, and me going, 'How do they still do that?'.

"It's also about the darker side. Scotland's not got a great relationship with party culture. But people look forward to a party because everything else is a bit s*** for us. That's our escape. 'We Survive' is like a dark version of 'This Is The Life'."

The 'This Is The Life' songstress has a string of tour dates to complete and following a show in Switzerland explained that it was "important" to get going again, especially because her last record was released when the world was in lockdown amid the COVID-19 pandemic so live shows were not possible.

She said: "Getting that first gig under my belt was important.

"We played four new songs and they got an amazing reaction. It's cool to be able to finally share these songs with people/

"My last record came out when Covid hit and it was a pain in the a*** because we couldn't go out on tour.

"It feels so nice to put a record out and then play it live."

Amy's biggest hit was released in 2007 and also served as the title track from her debut album, but she was surprised to learn that it has found a new audience thanks to the world of sport.

She said: "I started getting loads of comments on my videos in Arabic.

"Then I saw 'This Is The Life' was used in compilations of Cristiano Ronaldo scoring goals for his team there. They never had charts in Saudi, but then they introduced it and 'This Is The Life' was one of the first songs to go to No1."