Billboard Exclusive: Hear Ingrid Michaelson Sing a New Track From Her Score for Broadway’s ‘The Notebook’

For nearly the past six years, singer-songwriter Ingrid Michaelson has been working on-and-off on a momentous new project — but it’s not a new album. Michaelson is the composer and lyricist behind one of the most highly anticipated new musicals coming to Broadway next year: The Notebook, based on the bestselling novel by Nicholas Sparks that inspired the beloved romantic movie of the same name.

The material always felt like a natural fit for musical storytelling, Michaelson tells Billboard, “because of the time jumps. You can make that material magical and that means you can make it theatrical — and magic and suspending disbelief always leads to musical moments in my opinion.”

The Notebook begins Broadway previews Feb. 10 with an opening set for March 14, 2024, but tickets go on sale to the general public Sept. 26, with an exclusive Spotify pre-sale on Sept. 22 — and in anticipation of that, Michaelson is exclusively debuting with Billboard her cover track from the show, “If This Is Love.”

“I don’t think it’s a linear line from my original solo stuff” to The Notebook’s score, Michaelson says, “but my inclination to lean on melody is the same.” This new track, she says, felt like an “exciting“ song to debut that also felt “authentic to me and my experience,” and thus “a natural choice” to introduce the public to the sound of the show.

Writing for Broadway has “been one of the most collaborative and exciting creative experiences of my life. It has also forced me to have patience! Something I have very little of,” Michaelson jokes. “But I am getting better. Slowly.”

Billboard debuts “If This Is Love” exclusively here.