Guetta gets personal on album; features Minaj, Sia

NEW YORK — David Guetta says he wants his new music to make you dance. That's no surprise, but he's also hoping to make you cry a little.

The Grammy-winning DJ-producer says his sixth album, "Listen," is more emotional compared to past songs like the upbeat "Sexy Chick" with Akon and the explosive "Where Them Girls At."

"(My last album) 'Nothing But The Beat' ... was all about like dancing and partying and being sexy, you know, and this is a little deeper," he said in a recent interview. "It is of course an album that makes you want to dance because I'm a DJ first and I'm a positive person, but it's a little more — my life was not so much a party lately. It was harder on a personal level, and I think you can feel it in the album actually.

"Yes, I want people to dance, but they can dance with tears in their eyes. It's possible."

"Listen," in French hitmaker's first album in three years, debuted at No. 22 and No. 1 on Billboard's 200 and Dance/Electronic albums charts this week. He said that writing and producing songs about his own emotions was therapeutic.

"When you have a problem, if you keep it to yourself, it makes you go crazy. If you speak about it, you feel better. So if you make a song about it, it really helps," he said. "And I'm very happy now."

The album features some of Guetta's usual suspects: "Turn Me On" collaborator Nicki Minaj appears on the song "Hey Mama," while Sia, who worked with Guetta on the successful "Titanium," lends her vocals to two songs.

He called the female stars "perfectionists" and said they somewhat caused delays to the release of "Listen."

"I actually finished the album five times and every time it was like, 'Ugh, I can do a little better,'" he recalled of "Listen," which also features John Legend, Ryan Tedder and Emeli Sande. "And then Nicki Minaj called me and asked me for some changes. So I called the label, called the factory, they were pressing the record; I canceled it.

"And the same with Sia," he continued. "We started a song together and she called me like, 'I love this song. We should really do it, but I want to re-sing.'"