Singer Belinda Reflects on New Album “Indómita ”and Favorite Memory from Filming “The Cheetah Girls 2” (Exclusive)

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Spanish-Mexican star Belinda opens up to PEOPLE about the inspiration behind her latest album Indómita

Belinda reveals that it taught her to be stronger and to "give 100%, but with no expectations"

The singer also reflects on the 20th anniversary of The Cheetah Girls 2

Belinda can't — and won't — be tamed.

Last month, the Spanish-Mexican pop princess released her long-awaited fifth studio album Indómita. To Belinda, 35, this album represents her reclaiming her power.

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"It took me a while to get the strength that I needed to write the songs. It was a process of insecurity, of thinking that I was not worth it, of thinking that nobody was going to relate," she tells PEOPLE.

"Then, I read this book Indómita [by Raul Martin Espinosa], it was like I was reborn," adds Belinda. "This album made me reborn again. It's like I'm another person — in a good way."

Belinda (born Belinda Peregrín Schüll) was cast as the lead in the Mexican children's telenovela at age 10 in 2000. While she went on to star in more telenovelas, it was her 2003 self-titled debut album that propelled her to pop stardom. Since then, she's released Utopia(2006),Carpe Diem(2011) andCatarsis(2013). In 2006, Belinda made her crossover to the United States market when she starred in the Disney Channel Original Movie The Cheetah Girls 2.

Alex Córdova

Belinda

"Before, I was not strong enough to confront the world... But this word and this album is making me stronger in that way," Belinda says.

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To the star, Indómita (Spanish and Portuguese for "Indomitable") is a "strong woman" that "doesn't let anybody control her." Personally, it means that "nothing is going to make me feel less than. Nobody is going to make me feel I'm not worth it."

Reflecting on her life and career thus far, Belinda says she found that strength through experience.

"Life made me like this — all the experiences, broken hearts and expectations," she says. "Like the movie, Great Expectations (an adaptation of the 1861 novel by Charles Dickens), you have great expectations in love. You have great expectations in life. You have great expectations about everything."

Adds Belinda: "When you're younger, you don't know what it is to suffer. And with me, it was hard. It's been a hard way of knowing this meaning, but I'm happy now because I feel stronger. Now, it's different. I don't have great expectations. I don't create expectations out of nowhere, like in the past. I give 100%, but with no expectations."

Alex Córdova

Belinda

Meanwhile, next year will mark the 20th anniversary of The Cheetah Girls 2, the sequel to the beloved Disney Channel Original Movie, where the teen pop group travels to Barcelona for a music competition. In the film, Belinda played Marisol Duran, an ambitious singer and dancer from Spain who's initially a rival to the Cheetah Girls — but turns into an ally.

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"I was nervous because it was my first movie in English, but I had so much fun and it's such a great memory for me," Belinda says of the film. "I met Raven-Symoné, and all the girls were so sweet to me."

She adds, "Kenny Ortega, who was the director, was so passionate about the movie, always trying [to get] us to do everything so perfect and precise. And the moves of the camera and the light and everything, he was so perfectionist, and I loved working with him."

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DISNEY CHANNEL/SALVA AYALA

Sabrina Bryan, Adrienne Bailon, Raven-Symone, Belinda and Kiely Williams

Her favorite memory from shooting that film remains going to a restaurant in Barcelona with Symoné, 39, for a daily profiterole.

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"[We would go] every night. And she was so funny because she would say, "Quiero profiteroles." That was the only word in Spanish that she knew and we had so much fun," she says.

Indómita is out now.

Read the original article on People