(EUR) – Actress Vanessa Williams returns to music next month with the release of ‘The Real Thing’, a collection of classics inspired by jazz and Latin music, particularly the work of Sergio Mendes, who first performed the Stevie Wonder-penned title track.

“I wanted to do something with kind of a Brazilian feel,” Williams tells Billboard.com. “It’s kind of a hybrid of samba, bossa nova, some salsa and also some pop and R&B.”

Several of the songs are standards, like Bill Withers’ “Hello Like Before” and Bebel Gilberto’s “Close to You.” Two of the tracks, “Loving You” and “Just Friends,” are originals written by Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds.

‘The Real Thing’ is Williams’ first studio album since ‘Everlasting Love’ in 2005, which sold 62,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. (Her best-selling album so far is 1991’s ‘The Comfort Zone’, which sold 1.7 million.)

Juggling Williams’ acting career with her recording schedule was a feat. On and off, over the course of two years, she recorded the album during her hiatus from ABC’s ‘Ugly Betty’.

Williams relished returning to the studio. “Because of my TV schedule and the logistics of recording and moving to New York for the show, it wound up taking a lot longer than originally planned,” she says. “But I love that kind of music and I wanted to perform it.”