Christina Milian

After recording songs with the aforementioned producers, Milian took a break from music and started filming Bring It On: Fight to the Finish. When Milian returned to music, she concentrated on promoting her single "Us Against the World", and shot its music video. Since then, Milian said that she became "a little bit more meticulous with what I feel deserved to be on the album", and resumed recording. Songs recorded for the album included the 1990s Madonna-styled ballad "Stay", Euro-club record "Tug of War" and the feel-good song "Diamonds", which featured Kanye West. Other features included Rick Ross on the Cool & Dre produced track "Blissful", and Pitbull.
In early 2009, Milian began working with The-Dream, Tricky Stewart, and L.O.S. Da Maestro, which led to her signing a deal with Radio Killa Records. Milian revealed that aside from "Us Against the World", The-Dream and Tricky Stewart would be producing all the songs on her album. In March 2009, Milian changed the album's title to Elope. Regarding the album's title change, Milian explained, "the definition of elope is to run away secretly with one's beloved. This next album is about taking responsibility for yourself and making your own decisions." In June 2009, The-Dream said that the album was finished. Upon completion of the album, Milian said it represented "independence, not having to answer to any type of 'authority', being a woman at her best and feeling very confident". She said that fans could expect an "edgy sound with lots of strong powerful anthems. Big up tempos, R&B and Pop at it's best and two big ballads".
In August 2009, Milian confirmed that she had signed a deal to release Elope through Interscope Records, with a 2010 release date. Originally scheduled to be released in 2009, Tricky Stewart explained the delay, saying "we just got our label deals done, so the reason why some of these projects got delayed had to do with technicalities and things of that nature". The album has been furthered delayed because of Milian's marriage to The-Dream and her pregnancy. In January 2010, Milian said that she was going back into the studio in the summer to record more material. Although the album had already been finished when Milian took a break for her pregnancy, she wanted to "go back and re-do some of the music and make some new songs and find my new inspiration". In October 2009, Tricky Stewart said that another single had yet to be chosen, and that it would be the first single off Elope. Reported choices for the first single include "Zipper", "I'm a Cheat", and "Supersonic".
Milian starred as the main character in the Christmas television movie for the ABC Family channel entitled Snowglobe, alongside Lorraine Bracco. She was to be a leading character in The CW's new show Eight Days a Week as Olivia, alongside Mario Lopez, but The CW decided not to pick up the series due to the Writers Guild of America strike. Milian had a minor role in Ghosts of Girlfriends Past alongside Matthew McConaughey, and starred as the lead role in the straight-to-DVD film Bring It On: Fight to the Finish. and as one of the female leads, Carmen Mendez, in the video game Need for Speed: Undercover (2008).