Leah Marlene Is in Love, and It Just Might 'Feel Like' Heaven: 'I Am in Such a Beautiful Time' (Exclusive)

"It's fun to sing a relationship song and finally have it really mean something to me," the American Idol alum tells PEOPLE of her latest song

Leah Marlene is officially in love.

"And my parents love that I'm in love," Marlene, 21, tells PEOPLE in an emotional new interview. "I am in such a beautiful time in my life. I live in a really awesome apartment in West Nashville. I live with three other girls. I have my dad's old tour posters up on my wall and guitars all over my wall and some random notes from my mom and my girlfriend all over the place."

Yes, the Season 20 American Idol standout has a girlfriend.

"I had never been in a relationship before, so I was kind of a mess," the Indie-pop singer/songwriter says with a laugh about the romance that began last September. "I had so many anxieties and I was just so unsure of how it all worked and whether I should get into a relationship. We were long-distance at first, so there was just a lot to sort out. But it always came back to her being that safe place."

And it's this safety and this love that comes through every note of Marlene's new exhilarating single "Feel Like," whose visualizer premieres exclusively on PEOPLE.

"This song is really about the feeling of that infatuation when somebody makes you feel so free that you just want to dance around and drive with the windows down and dance in the rain," explains Marlene of the song she wrote alongside Megan Redmond and Brett Truitt early on in her relationship with her girlfriend — who has since shown up on her socials. "It really encapsulates all of that."

This carefree feeling was one that Marlene faced with a bit of trepidation at first. "I have worked so hard for my happiness and well-being that if anybody was going to be in my life, I needed to make sure it was the healthiest and most beautiful thing," says Marlene, who has opened up in the past about her battle with depression. "My girlfriend gave me that safe place to learn who I am in a relationship."

Ironically, Marlene says that she used to avoid writing "relationship songs."

"I would pride myself on writing songs that were about other, more interesting topics," remarks Marlene, who already has released two self-produced albums — The Space Between and Many Colors — since her successful time on Idol. "But when it came to writing ['Feel Like'], I didn't want it to just be like, 'I love you, you love me' — the stuff that you usually hear in a relationship song. I wanted it to be its own unique thing."

And the way Marlene hears it, one doesn't even need to be in love to love this addictive song. "I don't even feel like it necessarily has to be a romantic relationship song," she says. "I think it just celebrates relationships in your life that just make you feel safe and free."

Related:Keith Urban Is Returning to American Idol as a Guest Mentor: 'Headed Back'

Add that to a chorus filled with some 'do's, de's and da's' that effectively bring the listener into the most sonically beautiful carnival ride, "Feel Like" feels like summer. And watching people hear the song for the first time has become one of Marlene's ultimate passions.

"My friends and family love the song," she raves. "It's been really fun. I've been collecting some reaction videos because this song elicits a reaction when you get into the 'da, da, da' part because it's just so unexpected."

And as carefree as "Feel Like" might be, Marlene says she is proud that her hard work tuning up her songwriting skills is starting to pay off.

"I've been working really hard since I got off of American Idol, just writing nonstop because I really wanted to invest some time in just really developing my writing to the next level," says Marlene, who currently finds herself on a 23-city headlining tour across the Midwest and East Coast through the month of May. "'Feel Like' just feels so good. It's like my personality in sonic form."

So, are there more love songs to come from Marlene?

"There's a lot of songs about her out there," Marlene teases about her using her girlfriend as a muse as of late. "She gets shy when I sing to her. It's just really sweet. It's fun to sing a relationship song and finally have it really mean something to me."

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