On November 14th, the Country Music Association held their annual awards ceremony, where country singers are awarded for their talent and songs. These categories include; Female Vocalist, Male Vocalist, New Artist, Entertainer of the Year, Vocal Group, Vocal Duo, Single of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year, Music Video, Musical Event, and Musician. A lot of people have associated this kind of success with constant radio play and visibility in the public eye, but that is not completely true, especially this year.
This year, Kacey Musgraves was nominated in two categories, Female Vocalist and Album of the Year, but she was the only female in the later group, pitted against Keith Urban, Thomas Rhett, Chris Stapleton, and Dierks Bentley. She was beat out in the female category by Carrie Underwood, which is obvious because she is a very talented singer that puts out pandering albums to try and stay in the country limelight. Astoundingly, Kacey beat out all of the men vying for Album of the Year with her album Golden Hour. Here is why her success is important.
Kacey not only beat out all of the men in her category, but this is only the 6th time a woman has won the award in 52 years! The last woman to win the award was Miranda Lambert, four years ago with her album Platinum. The females in the industry know this is an issue and if it isn’t solved, we still will have small number of females singing country music. When Carrie Underwood was asked about what to tell little girls who want to be country singers on the podcast “Women Want to Hear Women”, she said, “What do you tell them? What do you do?” “How do you look at them and say, ‘Well, just work hard, sweetie, and you can do it,’ when that’s probably not the case right now?” Kacey’s win proves that you can do what feels right and still beat all the men around you.
Interesting as well, Kacey’s music is not common on the radio. I have definitely heard her older songs like “Biscuits,” “Follow Your Arrow,” “Merry Go Round,” and “Dimestore Cowgirl,” but have never heard her newer music, even though she does have very good hints of old country music. She did play a lot with her new album and it is very electronic, but still with some twang. Obviously she wouldn’t win if there wasn’t something good about her. She can’t wait for the Grammys next year!