‘This Is Definitely An Up’: Evanescence’s Amy Lee Reflects on Latest Album ‘Sanctuary’ And World Tour

Home in Nashville after the first North American leg of touring to promote Evanescence ‘s latest album, Sanctuary , Amy Lee has been decompressing and busy getting her 12-year-old son back into school mode.

She’s also had time to reflect on the band’s 2026 so far — and can’t help but be pleased with what she says been “a really good year, and an emotional one” in the best of ways.

“This album and this moment, and all of the support that has come together at the same time just feels like something bigger than myself, and that I wasn’t expecting at this phase in my life,” Lee tells Billboard via Zoom.

“It just feels like it’s that good moment.

Life is full of so many ups and downs and mediums, and this is definitely an up, and it means more than anything could have in my first couple years coming out, when I still a kid and hadn’t seen so much and felt so much.

“It’s a lot to sum up, but it’s been emotional in a very beautiful, connected way.

I feel grounded and lifted, spiritually, through my band, my team, the fans, the music, the tour.

It’s been a really special thing so far.” The empirical data certain bears that out.

Sanctuary , Evanescence’s sixth studio effort, debuted in the top 10 of Billboard’s Top Rock Albums and Independent Albums charts after its June 5 release.

It contains the band’s first two No.

1 Mainstream Rock Airplay hits — “Who Will You Follow,” and “Afterlife” from last year’s Netflix animated series Devil May Dry .

Lee was also part of “End of You,” a collaboration with Poppy and Courtney LaPLante of Spiritbox.

For Lee, the sole remaining member of the group that formed during 1994 in Little Rock, Ark., the success is about both the moment of Sanctuary as well as the 22 years that preceded it, which includes sales of more than 32 million albums and a pair of Grammy Awards.

“I think that it gets deeper the longer that you survive together, us and the fans,” she explains.