Heidi Montag Is An ‘ICON’: The Reality Star And Pop Singer On The Return Of Y2K And Her Well-Timed Comeback (Exclusive)

It’s never too late: for yet another Y2K renaissance, for the definitive song of the summer to infiltrate our eardrums, or to establish a new iconic era in the spotlight. Reality star and pop singer Heidi Montag is planning on doing all three with the release of her latest single, “ICON,” a flashy follow-up to her LP, Heidiwood. The 23-track clubby fever dream is Heidi’s first studio album in 15 years after her debut, Superficial, dropped at the height of her infamy in 2010.

Speidi (possibly the most hooky celebrity couple name ever) masterminded their way through MTV fame into household recognition. “It’s funny how everything’s kind of unfolded, and now people try to do things that I was so berated for and criticized for,” Heidi told me when we spoke on a summer afternoon between running errands by the pier with her seven-year-old, Gunner.

With a decade of distance from spending 24/7 in the tabloids, there couldn’t have been a better time for Heidi to take on a new project. The devastating LA Wildfires in January 2025 sparked fans to support the Montag-Pratt family through the loss by streaming Superficial to the top of the iTunes and Billboard Charts. “It took me out of an element of feeling just really defeated to feeling really supported and loved. Knowing that everyone was streaming my music not just for the love of it, but to lift up our family just really meant a lot,” Heidi gushed.

But Heidi is hopeful for more than virality; she’s building a legacy. “The foundation was laid so many years ago, but I feel like these are the first bricks I’ve been able to lay since,” an experience Heidi calls “powerful.” Her new drop is just one more step towards that goal. After listening to the song enough times to master her infectious inflection on the hook’s “you,” I debriefed with Heidi Montag on her single, “ICON.”

Heidiwood is a cheeky musical memoir of Heidi’s hard-earned place in pop culture history, after being spat up and chewed out by public perception. Tracks like “America’s Sweetheart,” “Bad Publicity,” and “Prototype” reference the scrutiny Heidi faced while overexposed. “Came down from the Heavens straight to Beverly Hills / I’m the reason all you bitches wanna get filled,” Heidi teases. Though “ICON” has the same bouncy pulse as her May 2025 release (with an updated hyper-pop twist), the lyrics show off Heidi’s sweeter side. It’s an ’80s ballad on speed, during which Heidi sings to the only fan that matters. It doesn’t take a super sleuth to detect that the “stan and promoter” who always makes her feel like “someone” is Spencer Pratt.

“Whenever I feel like I can’t go on or like I’m having a hard time, he lifts me up through that,” Heidi explained to me. “Everyone else, it doesn’t matter what they say, but to my husband, that I’m an icon, that means everything to me.” When Heidi and Spencer were wed on camera in 2008, there was certainly a mob of naysayers watching from home (and perhaps a few in the chapel) waiting for them to fall apart. “This was always the intimate and real relationship between us from the beginning,” Heidi said, noting they “obviously were really young and played a few games” back during the play-pretend of The Hills. Today, Heidi still considers Spencer her biggest supporter. “There’s never a struggle for fame or success or anything between [us], which I think a lot of people experience in Hollywood. But for us, it’s always been the opposite.”

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On her second LP, the mother of two ditched Hollywood for Heidiwood. The album’s titular track paints a picture of a Heidi-fied fantasy world, where the universe revolves around a Walk of Fame with Heidi as the only name. “ICON,” on the other hand, raves about how one adoring relationship is worth so much more than “tasting stardom.” Losing everything in the fires was a “consuming, transformative, and inspiring” experience for Heidi and her fam. “When you go through something like that, it really takes you back to zero and you reassess everything,” Heidi said, kicking off a “chapter of reassessing who I am with my family, what I want, and how to be successful.” That’s how she and her team ended up producing a song like “ICON,” a long way from playing paparazzi games with TMZ in the 2000s.

When Heidi first became famous, butterfly clips and pink flip phones were still being shoved into Dooney and Bourke Baguette Bags. Recently, Heidi loves seeing the resurgence of slim 90s reading glasses, sparkly pop star two-piece sets, and pleasers becoming mainstream again (“Shout out Pam Anderson,” she laughed). Y2K’s return has brought back more than fashion trends; it’s revitalized entire careers from Heidi’s girl Pam to Lindsay Lohan. “I think she’s never looked better,” Heidi said of Lohan (whom she met once briefly). “I love her fresh energy resurfacing,” Heidi continued, joking that she needs whatever doctors Lindsay has running her beauty regimen: “Give me all that!”

While she finds the Lohainssance refreshing, Heidi’s biggest celeb inspo comes from pop legends like Christina Aguilera, Jennifer Lopez, and, of course, Britney Spears. Still, if she could recreate a magic music moment, Heidi would have her own version of Mariah’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You,” one day. “That’s like one of my all-time, all-time favorites. And I love Christmas more than anything,” Heidi stressed. But fans who have known her name since 2006 would argue that being iconic (though it may have taken the media a hot sec to catch up) is already in Heidi’s nature.

When I asked Heidi how she wants to be remembered 20 years down the line, she lit up. “First and foremost, I just want to be an incredible wife and mom. That’s everything to me.” But when it comes to her music, Heidi wants fans to do more than come to her performances or earn her another album by pressing play. She wants them to feel her. “I just want people to feel that confidence because I feel like this world is such a hard, critical place. I want people to feel comfortable and confident with who they are, and not have to feel like they need to fit into society…so I just hope that that translates with my music.” Heidi pictures fans belting the words “ICON” on a drive with their friends or as a final hoorah at the end of a long night. “It’s a good night ender song, you know, like a good segue to romance.” And who doesn’t want to feel like the star of a TV show, if only for two minutes and 35 seconds?