Rising singer-songwriter Allison Ponthier has a lot going for her right now — including prominent endorsements from superfans like Elton John, who featured her in his recent documentary, and Brandi Carlile. But everything was not coming up roses last summer, when she learned she’d been dropped from her label, Interscope, after several years’ worth of singles and EPs but no full-length album. That was a bitter pill, but she makes something sweet out of the experience with “Karaoke Queen,” her first single as an independent artist, which comes out today.

Ponthier talked Variety through the making of the new single, and how it represented a catharsis for her after what felt like a devastating professional setback. As it turned out, there was something prophetic about the song — or possibly “manifesting,” as she puts it — because she wrote it early on in being with Interscope, coming up with an at-the-time fictional scenario anticipating what it would be like to lose that deal. (Listen to the new track, below.)