"I don't have a box," declares US singer Jordin Sparks in the latest instalment of RedBull Studio Sessions. Sparks isn't in the throes of moving house. Instead, back in the studio to write and record her new six-track EP, Sounds Like Me (listen to it here), Sparks is talking about attempts to pigeonhole her musically and how determined she is to stick to her own wide-open path. "When you do something scary, that's how you know that's what youre supposed to be doing."Her adventurous approach to music-making is captured throughout her edition of RedBull Studio Sessions a filmed, fly-on-the-wall document of how Sounds Like Me was made. Working with guest producers, songwriters, rappers and singers, Sparks is just as comfortable collaborating with Lord Quest a producer best-known for working with hip-hop golden boys ScHoolboy Q, Raekown and Juice Wrld as she is with electronic-pop artist Sad Alex and the other stylistically varied talents (Zak Waters, Jordyn Dodd, P. Wright and Rami Jrade) invited to help make Sounds Like over three days in LA. Sparks is not, it seems, afraid of the unexpected.

Watch RedBull Studio Sessions: The Jordin Sparks Edition

The Jordin Sparks Edition

Sparks's approach is fuelled by an eclectic, electric energy she was able to harness early on. She's an artist who has absorbed influences from all corners of the musical spectrum, utilising her love of all music to power an impressive career that began, of course, when she won the sixth season of American Idol at just 17-years-old.

The ever-evolving production techniques that have propelled R'n'B through so many changes over the past four decades have played a big part in this. "I grew up in the '90s and '90s R'n'B is my favourite Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, Boyz II Men, Babyface," Sparks told an interviewer a few years ago, citing Brandy and country pop star Martina McBride as major inspirations early on, too.

"It was kind of weird to have such a big voice and it was weird to try to figure out if that was normal or not. When I heard Mariah and Whitney, I was like, 'Oh, these girls have big voices like me, it's okay'."

US soul-pop star, Jordin Sparks

Aldo Chacon/RedBull Content Pool

Then there's her undying love of Motown, which inspired not just her singing, but helped kick-off her acting career, too, when, in 2012, she starred in Sparkle, a film about three singing teenage sisters from Detroit who form a girl group in the late 1960s. It was the final film role for her hero Whitney Houston before her death.

Lyrically, she's doing her own thing, too, shifting the focus away from self-centred braggadocio. "I really want some happiness, because my life is really good," she says during her episode of RedBull Studio Sessions, referencing her love of personal, confessional songwriting. Wearing her heart on her sleeve, Sparks discusses her desire to reflect her family life in her music and is overcome with emotion during a concept presentation of one track, with Sad Alex on piano, as she makes connections between its lyrics and her own life.

"It's so beautiful, so pretty and so many people go through this, too," she says, through tears. "Do you choose to stay or do you just give up? Thats the whole point you choose that person, you choose them every single day, no matter what you feel."

Watch how Jordin Sparks wrote and recorded Red Sangria:

The making of Red Sangria with Jordin Sparks

There's a defiance that reverberates through Sparks's music, including on this new EP, that is, in part, informed by her experience of loss. Her step-sister died aged just 16 of sickle cell anaemia ("She inspired me so much, she was such a fighter," Sparks said in an interview last year) and she's seen close friends pass away.

But her positive, seize-every-moment outlook also stems from her belief in the power of sisterhood and her fight for female empowerment a topic that she sang so openly about on her 2011 track I Am Woman. "It's all about the amazingness of a woman," she said at the time. Which is something you'll know all about after watching Sparks at work in RedBull Studio Sessions.

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Eclecticism is the key to the electric energy of Jordin Sparks - Red Bull