Mandy Moore Just Confirmed The BEST News For Anyone Who Still Listens To “Candy”

It looks like the late '90s could be making a comeback. After teasing fans with a taste of some new tunes on Instagram earlier this month, Mandy Moore confirmed she's returning to music during a Jimmy Kimmel Live! appearance Tuesday night, July 24. And, to all those pop music aficionados in need of some further clarification before getting their hopes up about this particularly exciting bit of news: You heard right. Speaking to Jimmy Kimmel about the Instagram post that's had the internet buzzing about Moore's possible return to music, the star revealed that, while she might not be diving back into music-making full force (not yet, at least), she's taking the first few steps toward eventually doing so.

To that end, Moore told Kimmel,

"It's been about 10 years since I've made a record. I am dipping my toe back in as we speak."

Now, does that mean Moore's fans should bank on some kind of modern-day resurgence of those bangers they grew up with? (Ahem, "So Real," anyone?) Not necessarily. After all, it's been a minute since the singer's 16-year-old self rocked the late-'90s bubblegum pop scene with anthems like "Candy," which promptly became prime soundtrack material for most every preteen sleepover party.

Of course, fans of Moore's music will probably remember that her stint as a pop star evinced its late-'90s roots and continued all the way up until 2009, when Moore released her sixth and final album, Amanda Leigh. Still, with almost another full decade of life experience under her belt, it wouldn't be a total shock if Moore's Round 2 jaunt with music-making sounded at least a little bit different than the one she saw during the earlier days of her career.

That being said, even if Moore isn't currently drumming up a record that nods to her oldie hits (much as veteran fans would love that), it certainly sounds like her fans might want to keep an eye out for some freshly-minted tracks filtering into the pop music sphere sometime in the future. After watching her conversation with Kimmel Tuesday night, it feels exceedingly clear that Moore is taking this second go-round with singing and songwriting pretty seriously.

Plus, judging by her comments, it sounds like those tracks on Moore's musical horizon are penned by the actor-musician extraordinaire herself — seriously, is there anything this woman can't do? — so it seems safe to say she'll be gifting fans with some high-quality goods whenever this new music does come to fruition.

"I've just started writing," Moore told Kimmel, with an ear-to-ear grin that's bound to make audiences smile, too. And, much like her triumphant grin suggests, Moore made it pretty clear on Instagram earlier this month that this second bout with writing and recording music is a pretty huge victory for her. Captioning an Instagram video that saw her working on some new music inside a recording studio, Moore initially teased her return to the music scene a couple of weeks ago, on July 13, with a pretty empowering message:

"Getting back to it. It's time. I miss it. I'm not scared anymore. No more excuses. No more allowing someone’s else insecurities to dictate my relationship to music and singing. Boom."

Judging by the medley of ultra-enthused comments on that IG post, it seems safe to say the star's fans definitely think it's time, too. So here's to watching Moore continue "getting back into it" (even if only via snippets of videos on social media) and rediscovering her voice inside the recording studio.