State Champ Radio Awards
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SZA will receive the Hal David Starlight Award at the 2024 Songwriters Hall of Fame Induction and Awards dinner on Thursday, June 13, at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City.
The award, named after the late lyricist and SHOF chairman emeritus, is presented to “gifted young songwriters who are making a significant impact in the music industry with their original songs,” according to the announcement.
It is meant as a balance to the Johnny Mercer Award, the organization’s top award, which is a career-capping honor. This year’s Mercer Award will be presented to Diane Warren. This marks only the second time that both the Mercer Award and the Hal David Starlight Award will be presented to female artists. In 2019, Carole Bayer Sager took the Mercer prize, while Halsey won the Starlight Award.
SZA will become the second Black woman to receive the honor, following Alicia Keys in 2005.
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SZA and Warren competed for an Academy Award for best original song in 2019. SZA was nominated for co-writing “All the Stars” from Black Panther; Warren for writing “I’ll Fight” from RBG, a documentary about Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Neither song won. The award went to “Shallow” from A Star Is Born.
The “Snooze” singer was the most nominated artist at the 66th annual Grammy Awards, with nine nods. She won three Grammys in February for her sophomore album SOS, though she lost the top prize, album of the year, to Taylor Swift (the 2010 recipient of the Hal David Starlight Award).
“This is such an exciting time for songwriters and music,” SHOF chairman Nile Rodgers said in a statement. “Phenomenal artists like Beyoncé and Taylor Swift are pushing the envelope of what success looks like, but who could argue that the last two years belong to SZA. Incredible songwriting, incredible performances, incredible artistry. She so deserves to be the 2024 recipient of the Hal David Starlight Award!”
SOS topped the all-genre Billboard 200 for 10 weeks and headed Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart for 24 weeks. “Kill Bill” and “Snooze” reached No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, on both the Billboard Hot 100 and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs charts.
Previously announced 2024 inductees are Hillary Lindsey; Timothy Mosley (aka Timbaland); Dean Pitchford; R.E.M. (Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills, Michael Stipe) and Steely Dan (Donald Fagen and the late Walter Becker).
Here’s the complete list of recipients of the Hal David Starlight Award.
2004: Rob Thomas (Matchbox Twenty)
2005: Alicia Keys
2006: John Mayer
2007: John Legend
2008: John Rzeznik (Goo Goo Dolls)
2009: Jason Mraz
2010: Taylor Swift
2011: Drake
2012: Ne-Yo
2013: Benny Blanco
2014: Dan Reynolds (Imagine Dragons)
2015: Nate Ruess (fun.)
2016: Nick Jonas (Jonas Brothers)
2017: Ed Sheeran
2018: Sara Bareilles
2019: Halsey
2022: Lil Nas X
2023: Post Malone
2024: SZA
04/16/2024
Lily Tomlin’s This Is a Recording joins the list this year. As her character Ernestine would say, ‘One ringy-dingy, two ringy-dingy.’
04/16/2024
Albums by The Notorious B.I.G., The Chicks and Green Day are among the 2024 inductees to the National Recording Registry, which is administered by the Library of Congress. The 25 newly-added recordings bring the number of titles on the Registry to 650.
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Several of the inducted recordings capture important scenes in popular music. Jefferson Airplane’s Surrealistic Pillow, which spawned the hits “White Rabbit” and “Somebody to Love,” captures 1967’s Summer of Love; The Cars’ The Cars and Blondie’s Parallel Lines tapped into the new wave scene of the late ’70s; Héctor Lavoe’s “El Cantante” was part the late ’70s salsa boom in New York City.
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Other inductees include Jackie Brenston and His Delta Cats’ “Rocket ‘88” (1951), produced by Sam Phillips, often called the first rock’n’roll recording; Lily Tomlin’s This Is a Recording, the first comedy album by a woman to be inducted; and Gene Autry’s 1949 smash “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” the third Christmas song to be inducted (following Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas” and Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You”).
“The Library of Congress is proud to preserve the sounds of American history and our diverse culture through the National Recording Registry [NRR],” Carla Hayden, the Librarian of Congress, said in a statement.
The inductees cover a wide range of genres, including jazz, bluegrass, pop, dance, country, rock, rap, Latin and classical music.
Several of the inductees achieved historic firsts. Bobby McFerrin’s “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” became the first a cappella recording to top the Billboard Hot 100 in 1988. It was also the first recording produced by a woman (Linda Goldstein) to win a Grammy for record of the year. Perry Como’s “Catch a Falling Star” (1958) was the first single to be officially certified gold by the RIAA.
Several debut or first major-label recordings were inducted — Biggie’s debut album, Ready to Die; the debut single (“Ain’t No Sunshine”) from Bill Withers’ debut album Just As I Am (1971); and the first major-label albums by Green Day (1994’s Dookie) and The Chicks (formerly Dixie Chicks, 1998’s Wide Open Spaces).
In addition to McFerrin’s “Don’t Worry, Be Happy,” which topped the Hot 100 in 1988, the list includes four songs that reached No. 1 on pop charts that appeared in Billboard prior to the introduction in 1958 of the Hot 100: Autry’s “Rudolph,” Como’s “Star,” Patti Page’s pop and country smash “The Tennessee Waltz” (1950) and Johnny Mathis’ “Chances Are” (1957). (The NRR lists the latter smash along with its hit B side, “Magic Moments,” one of the first hits by songwriting titans Burt Bacharach & Hal David.)
Two of the inducted albums spawned No. 1 hits on the Hot 100. ABBA’s Arrival (1976) included their signature smash “Dancing Queen.” Blondie’s Parallel Lines (1978) included their dance/disco hit “Heart of Glass,” their first of four No. 1 hits in a two-year blitz.
Two hip-hop recordings were saluted – Biggie’s Ready to Die and Doug E. Fresh and Slick Rick’s “La-Di-Da-Di,” which originated as the B side of Doug E. Fresh & the Get Fresh Crew’s 1985 single “The Show.” The A side was a top five hit on Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.
Two Latin recordings were honored. Lavoe’s “El Cantante” (1978) is among the most famous recordings by the late Puerto Rican salsa singer; it was written by Rubén Blades and produced by Willie Colón. Likewise, Juan Gabriel’s “Amor Eterno” (1990) is one of the late Mexican singer/songwriter’s signature songs. “It’s a great honor for my dad,” Juan Gabriel’s son Ivan Gabriel Aguilera told the Library in Spanish. “… He would always say that ‘as long as the public, people, keep singing my music, Juan Gabriel will never die,’ and it’s nice to see that happening here.”
Benny Goodman was acknowledged for a second time, a relatively rarity in the NRR. “Rose Room,” a 1939 recording by the Goodman Sextet with guitarist Charlie Christian, follows Goodman’s 1938 Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert into the Registry. That landmark album was inducted in 2003.
Booker T. Jones, who produced Withers’ sublime “Ain’t No Sunshine,” was previously inducted as an artist with Booker T. & the M.G.’s’ 1967 album Green Onions.
Some albums are seen as crucial building blocks, even though they didn’t make the Billboard 200. An eponymous album by J.D. Crowe & the New South (1975) was important in reviving interest in bluegrass. Crowe’s musicians included Ricky Skaggs, Tony Rice and Jerry Douglas.
The oldest recording honored this year is “Clarinet Marmalade,” a 1919 recording by Lt. James Reese Europe’s 369th US. Infantry Band. The all-Black band was comprised of soldiers who served in France during World War I.
The most recent release on this year’s list is The Chicks’ RIAA Diamond-certified 1998 breakthrough album Wide Open Spaces.
Remarkably, three of the honored artists were killed. Lt. James Reese Europe died in May 1919 – just three months after returning home from service in World War I, after being stabbed in the neck by one his drummers. Jazz trumpeter Lee Morgan, whose 1964 album The Sidewinder was inducted, was shot to death in 1972. The Notorious B.I.G. was shot to death in 1997.
Under the terms of the National Recording Preservation Act of 2000, the Librarian of Congress, with advice from the National Recording Preservation Board, selects 25 titles each year that are “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” and are at least 10 years old. That board is chaired by Robbin Ahrold, president and CEO of Century Media Partners LLC in Washington D.C. and a former executive with BMI, the RCA Music Group and HBO.
A record 2,899 nominations were made by the general public this year. The public can submit nominations throughout the year on the Library’s web site. Nominations for next year’s Registry will be accepted through Oct. 1.
Here’s a complete list of the recordings selected for the 2024 National Recording Registry.
Lt. James Reese Europe’s 369th U.S. Infantry Band, “Clarinet Marmalade” (1919)
Viola Turpeinen and John Rosendahl, “Kauhavan Polkka” (1928)
Various Artists, Wisconsin Folksong Collection (1937-1946)
Benny Goodman Sextet with Charlie Christian, “Rose Room” (1939)
Gene Autry, “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer” (1949)
Patti Page, “The Tennessee Waltz” (1950)
Jackie Brenston and His Delta Cats, “Rocket ‘88’” (1951)
Johnny Mathis, “Chances Are” (1957)
Perry Como, “Catch a Falling Star” / “Magic Moments” (1957)
Lee Morgan, The Sidewinder (1964)
Jefferson Airplane, Surrealistic Pillow (1967)
Lily Tomlin, This is a Recording (1971)
Bill Withers, “Ain’t No Sunshine” (1971)
J.D. Crowe & the New South, J.D. Crowe & the New South (1975)
ABBA, Arrival (1976)
Héctor Lavoe, “El Cantante” (1978)
The Cars, The Cars (1978)
Blondie, Parallel Lines (1978)
Doug E. Fresh and Slick Rick (MC Ricky D), “La-Di-Da-Di” (1985)
Bobby McFerrin, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” (1988)
Juan Gabriel, “Amor Eterno” (1990)
Kronos Quartet, Pieces of Africa (1992)
Green Day, Dookie (1994)
The Notorious B.I.G., Ready to Die (1994)
The Chicks, Wide Open Spaces (1998)
The 2024 inductees into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame will be announced live coast-to-coast during a Rock Hall-themed episode of American Idol on Sunday (April 21). The inductees will be announced by American Idol host Ryan Seacrest along with judge (and 2022 Rock Hall inductee) Lionel Richie. The episode will air 8-10:01 p.m. […]
On Saturday (April 13), Willie “Prophet” Stiggers, co-founder/president/CEO of Black Music Action Coalition (BMAC), was honored at the National Action Network’s 21st Annual Convention Youth and College Day by the Reverend Al Sharpton for his commitment to the youth program, as well his lifelong activism in the music industry and within the Black community. Prophet […]
A radical restaging of Hollywood film noir musical Sunset Boulevard was the big winner on Sunday (April 14) at the London stage Olivier Awards, taking seven trophies including best musical revival and best actress for American star Nicole Scherzinger.
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Soccer-themed state-of-the-nation drama Dear England was named best new play, while Sarah Snook and Mark Gatiss were among the acting winners.
Scherzinger was rewarded for her performance as fading silver screen star Norma Desmond in a flashy revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Sunset Boulevard, three decades after the musical’s 1990s debut. Her co-star Tom Francis won the corresponding best actor prize as a struggling screenwriter fatefully drawn into Desmond’s orbit.
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Jamie Lloyd took the directing trophy for the technically innovative production, which melds live video with the onstage action and also won Oliviers for sound and lighting design. It’s due to open in New York later this year, and Lloyd predicted it would “take Broadway by storm.”
Scherzinger said that when she was growing up in Kentucky, “I always wanted to be a singer and do musicals.”
“I dreamed of so many roles I wanted to do — and honestly this role, Norma Desmond, was not one of those roles,” she said. “But God works in mysterious ways.”
The prize for best new musical went to Operation Mincemeat, a word-of-mouth hit based on an audacious real-life espionage operation that deceived the Nazis during World War II. The show began life in a tiny theater in 2019 and has moved to progressively larger venues, gathering accolades along the way.
Stranger Things: The First Shadow, a dazzlingly staged prequel to the Netflix supernatural series, was named best new entertainment or comedy.
The Oliviers — the U.K. equivalent of Broadway’s Tony Awards — are celebrating a bumper year for new shows in the West End, finally bouncing back from the COVID-19 pandemic. Several winners lamented the soaring cost of theater tickets, and cuts to arts education that are squeezing working-class talent out of theatrical careers and theater audiences.
“If you don’t tell a kid to go and see a show … they’re not going to develop that habit, they’re not going to get that experience,” said Dear England playwright James Graham, who grew up in a small mining town. “So I am really worried.”
But the mood was largely celebratory as Ted Lasso star Hannah Waddingham presided over an exuberant ceremony at London’s Royal Albert Hall, opening the show by belting out “Anything Goes” alongside the London Community Gospel Choir. The show was peppered with performances from several of the nominated musicals, including Guys and Dolls, Hadestown and homegrown hit The Little Big Things.
The prizes, which recognize achievements in theater, opera and dance, were founded in 1976 and named for the late actor-director Laurence Olivier. Winners are chosen by voting groups of stage professionals and theatergoers.
Snook – the scheming Shiv Roy in Succession – beat a talented field including Sarah Jessica Parker and Sophie Okonedo to be named best actress in a play for The Picture of Dorian Gray, an adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s cautionary fable in which Snook plays more than two dozen characters.
Backstage, the Emmy Award-winning Australian performer said the solo stage show was “so much harder” than doing TV.
“I’ve never done anything harder than this,” said Snook, who said she’d asked herself “why am I doing a 60,000-word monologue with an 8-month-old baby?” She revealed she’d learned her lines for the play during filming of the final series of Succession, at night while breastfeeding her daughter.
Gatiss — co-creator of the BBC TV series Sherlock — won the best actor trophy for playing theater great John Gielgud in The Motive and the Cue, Jack Thorne’s play about the struggle to mount a 1964 production of Hamlet with Richard Burton.
Gatiss recalled that Gielgud had considered awards ceremonies “vulgar.”
“I’m very, very thrilled to be in such wonderfully vulgar company,” he said.
Gatiss beat Dear England star Joseph Fiennes and Andrew Scott, who had been the favorite to win for the solo show Vanya. The Anton Chekhov adaptation by Simon Stephens took the prize for best revival.
Will Close was named best supporting actor in a play for his performance as footballer Harry Kane in Dear England.
Haydn Gwynne, who died in October, was posthumously awarded the best supporting actress prize for her final stage role in When Winston Went to War with the Wireless, about the early days of radio in Britain.
Awards for supporting performances in musicals were Amy Trigg for The Little Big Things and Jak Malone for Operation Mincemeat.
The show ended with a tribute to the National Theatre, which turned 60 in 2023 — culminating in a star-studded cast singing the anthem “You’ll Never Walk Alone.”
Country music is having a major moment in Canada, and the CCMA Awards is getting one of the genre’s biggest stars. Thomas Rhett will host the Canadian Country Music Association’s annual award ceremony on Sept. 14, 2024 at Rogers Place in Edmonton. And the American star will be joined by a homegrown star in the making, Alberta singer and actor MacKenzie Porter.
This year’s awards take place during a big time in Canadian country, with major festivals popping up across the country and new bridges being made with Nashville.
In addition to topping the Billboard Country Airplay chart 20 times, Rhett also has 16 No. 1 hits on Canadian country radio, so he’s a natural choice to cross the border to host Canada’s biggest country music awards.
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“The way Canadian fans have embraced me throughout my career is something I never take for granted,” Rhett tells Billboard Canada. “Every time we come there, we are blown away by the energy they bring and the love they have for country music.”
Travelling between Canada and Nashville, Porter is also making a big splash on both sides of the border. With 900 million streams already, she’s got a new album, Nobody’s Born With a Broken Heart, coming out on April 26 on Big Loud Records.
“I personally think this year is going to be the best show yet,” she continues. “Canadian country music has never been better, and having the show in Alberta, home of country music, feels very fitting!”
CCMA president Amy Jeninga says they carefully selected the hosts “based on their significant contributions to the Canadian country music community,” with Rhett’s major Canadian fanbase playing “a crucial role in our country music ecosystem.” Plus, two of his band members are Canadian musicians, she notes.
Porter, meanwhile, is a great representative of Alberta’s country music scene, she says. She’s also a woman making waves in a genre that is typically overrepresented by male artists.
Nominations and programming have yet to be announced, but the CCMAs will get a lead-in from Country Music Week 2024, which kicks off in Edmonton on Wednesday, September 11.
The CCMAs will air on Saturday, September 14 at 8 p.m. ET on CTV, CTV.ca and the CTV app. – Richard Trapunski
Canadian Songwriter Tobias Jesso Jr. Earns SOCAN Award for Dua Lipa Hit
Tobias Jesso Jr. made a small splash as a solo recording artist, including a spot on the 2015 Polaris Music Prize shortlist for his album Goon, but he’s spent close to the last decade focused on writing for others. He’s seen major international success, including winning the first ever Grammy for Songwriter of the Year.
Jesso Jr. now has a huge repertoire of hits, contributed to songs by Adele, Miley Cyrus, Harry Styles, XXXTENTACION and more. Last year, he sold his goldmine catalog to Hipgnosis Song Management.
Now, he’s getting some recognition in his home country again, specifically from Canadian performance rights and royalty-collecting organization SOCAN. On April 5 in L.A., Jesso received a SOCAN No. 1 Song Award, for co-writing Dua Lipa’s “Houdini.” This smash hit topped the Billboard Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart for 14 weeks, starting in Nov. 2023, and it has earned more than 380 million plays on Spotify, and more than 104 million views on YouTube. – David Farrell & Richard Trapunski
More Than 10% of the Most-Streamed Songs in Canada are by Canadian Artists
According to a new report, of the 1,000 most-streamed artists in Canada, 113 are Canadian. Laying a Foundation for Success, published by Music Canada — the association representing major music labels in Canada — takes a look at Canadian streaming data to determine whether Canadian artists are getting heard. Studying the 10,000 most popular artists in Canada in 2022, economist Will Page finds that 889 were Canadian. Of the 10,000 most popular songs, 1,013 were Canadian.
At the upper echelons of popularity, the trend holds: roughly 10% of the thousand most-streamed artists and songs were Canadian. Canadian artists like Tate McRae and Charlotte Cardin outranked popular American stars like Selena Gomez on that list. Other Canadians amongst the 1,000 most-streamed artists include country singer Josh Ross, Punjabi-Canadian artist Karan Aujla, pianist Alexandra Stréliski and singer Lauren Spencer Smith.
“In a world where fans can listen to any artist, from any country in the world, and with nearly every recorded song at their fingertips, listeners are choosing Canadian music,” says Music Canada CEO Patrick Rogers.
Of the 889 Canadian artists amongst the top 10,000, roughly 75% perform in English, while 20% perform in French. Page notes that the third most-popular language segment is Punjabi music, which is also the fastest-growing music language in the country, and accounts for 3% of the 889 musicians.
Recorded music revenues in Canada have doubled since 2014, when Spotify launched, and are now as high as they were before the launch of iTunes in 2004. Page notes that according to consultancy MIDIA, Canadian recorded music revenues could soon hit a billion dollars for the first time.
The government is preparing to implement Bill C-11, the Online Streaming Act, which became law last year, and Page’s report recommends some policy changes. One is the “Mandate, Don’t Dictate” approach, which would entail moderate government interventions such as requirements that Canadian artists be indexed highly on playlists, or that streaming services pay into the Canadian music industry in the same way as radio broadcasters.
Ultimately, for every one stream within Canada, Page writes, Canadian artists are getting roughly 10 abroad. Any government music strategy should focus on helping Canadian music thrive on the international stage, he says. – Rosie Long Decter
Last Week In Canada: Tegan and Sara Lead Campaign Against Anti-Trans Policies
The 2025 Oscars will be held on Sunday, March 2, one week earlier than the 2024 show, which was held on Sunday, March 10. And here’s good news for East Coasters who liked this year’s earlier starting time for the Oscars: The 2025 show will again begin at 7 p.m. ET.
The 2024 show clocked in at 3 hours 22 minutes, which means East Coasters were able to watch the full show and still turn in at a reasonable hour. In years past, millions of East Coast film fans had to choose between sticking around for the announcement of best picture and getting to bed before midnight.
The show will again be held at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood, its home since 2002 (except for the pandemic-era show in 2021, when it was held at Union Station in Los Angeles).
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Nominations will be announced on Jan. 17, 2025 – just five days after nominations-round voting closes. Most awards shows take longer between the close of voting and the announcement of the nominations. The Oscars’ approach allows voters more time to see eligible films and make informed choices. (The Oscars take a bit more time to tally final-round ballots, which are due Feb. 18, 2025 — 12 days before the big show.)
This will be the second year that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will have Representation and Inclusion Standards (for which the Academy uses the acronym RAISE) to be eligible in the best picture category. As the Academy notes, these standards “are designed to encourage equitable representation on and off screen to better reflect the diverse global population.”
Thursday, Nov. 14 is the final day to submit a confidential Inclusion Standards form. Last year, the Academy required that producers meet at least two of these four standards: on-screen representation, themes and narratives; creative leadership and project team; industry access and opportunities; and audience development. (Read a detailed summary of the RAISE standards on the Academy’s site.)
Below are key dates for the 2024 Oscars season. (The Academy cautions that all dates are subject to change.)
Thursday, Nov. 14: General entry, best picture, RAISE submission deadline
Sunday, Nov. 17: Governors Awards
Monday, Dec. 9: Preliminary voting begins 9 a.m. PT
Friday, Dec. 13: Preliminary voting ends 5 p.m. PT
Tuesday, Dec. 17: Oscars shortlists announcement
Tuesday, Dec. 31: Eligibility period ends
Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025: Nominations voting begins 9 a.m. PT
Sunday, Jan. 12, 2005: Nominations voting ends 5 p.m. PT
Friday: Jan. 17, 2005: Nominations announcement
Monday, Feb. 10, 2005: Oscars Nominees Luncheon
Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025: Finals voting begins 9 a.m. PT
Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025: Finals voting ends 5 p.m. PT
Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025: Scientific and Technical Awards
Sunday, March 2, 2025: 97th Oscars
Music talent agents Michael Gorfaine and Sam Schwartz were honored at the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra’s (LACO) 2024 Gala Celebration on Saturday (April 6) at the Skirball Cultural Center’s Ahmanson Ballroom in Los Angeles. The agents, co-founders of Gorfaine/Schwartz, received the LACO Hollywood Ally Award.
In accepting his award, Gorfaine said, “John Williams shared something with me that I believe should be a guiding principle: ‘Be in service to music.’ It’s our responsibility to support the wonderful musicians who play, the talented composers who write, and the dedicated teachers who teach.”
For more than 40 years, Gorfaine and Schwartz have represented top composers, songwriters, music supervisors and record producers working in film, TV and video games.
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The event raised a record-breaking $1 million to benefit LACO’s artistic and educational initiatives. Highlights included a concert with LACO artists led by music director Jaime Martín.
Film composer James Newton Howard, who was honored by LACO in 2022, was the honorary chair. In addition to Williams and Howard, others in attendance included composers Glen Ballard, Sean Callery, John Debney, Harry Gregson-Williams, Corky Hale, Steve Jablonsky, Julia Newman, Thomas Newman, Mike Post, Theodore Shapiro, Alan Silvestri, Michael Skloff, Mike Stoller and Brian Tyler; and industry executives Spring Aspers, Paul Broucek, Alex Hodges, Tom MacDougall, Tracy McKnight, Alison Smith and Randy Spendlove.
Brigitta B. Troy and Alden Lawrence served as event chairs. Peggy Falcon and Anne Grausam were event committee co-chairs.
Shaheen and Anil Nanji, longtime LACO advocates, community leaders and philanthropists, received the LACO Heartstrings Award.
For information on LACO, visit LACO.org.
When the Academy of Country Music Awards nominations were revealed on Tuesday morning (April 9), “Tennessee Orange” hitmaker Megan Moroney scored six nominations, including new female artist of the year and female artist of the year, making her the leading female artist nominee heading into the awards show on May 16 (she ties with Morgan Wallen for six nominations, while only Luke Combs has more nominations this year, with eight).
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“I was still in bed, because I just got back from the CMT Music Awards, so I started seeing my phone blowing up with the news,” she tells Billboard of learning of her ACM Awards nominations. “It’s crazy to me that I’m nominated for new female artist and female artist at the same time — I didn’t even know you could do that, so I think that was the most surprising.”
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Meanwhile, she also earns nominations in the visual media of the year and music event of the year categories, for “Can’t Break Up Now,” which she collaborated on with country group Old Dominion. That’s in addition to her nominations as both writer and artist for her college football-framed, star-crossed romance single “Tennessee Orange” in the song of the year category. She wrote “Tennessee Orange” with Ben Williams, David Fanning and Paul Jenkins.
“I’m also really proud of the song of the year, because I care so much about my songwriting and my songwriter friends,” Moroney says. “I think it’s all just insane. It is a dream to be nominated and to be the top female nominated this year, I’m just like, ‘What the heck?’”
These six nominations are a testament to the rocket ride the Georgia-born singer-songwriter has been on since she began releasing songs such as “Hair Salon” and “Wonder.” But it was “Tennessee Orange” that went viral in 2022 and Moroney was quickly signed to Sony Music Nashville/Columbia Records. Currently, Moroney has two songs in the top 25 on the Billboard Country Airplay chart: “Can’t Break Up Now” and her own “I’m Not Pretty.” Her headlining Lucky 2.0 tour launches next month, while this spring and summer will also find Moroney playing stadiums, in support of Kenny Chesney’s Sun Down 2024 Tour, as well as a performance at massive country music festival Stagecoach. In September, Moroney will make the trek overseas for a 15-show headlining Georgia Girl tour in the U.K. and Europe.
All of it serves as evidence of the success of an artist who has managed to blend eye-catching, Southern-soaked glamour with live shows that have an intimate, confessional feel, and songs that poetically expose a spectrum of deep-seated emotions and musings.
Moroney says she’s grateful for the ACM Awards nominations, knowing that they are voted on by her industry peers. “I feel very embraced by the country music community, and that is the cherry on top,” she says. “My fans have been so supportive and showed up for me. So that the industry would recognize what we’re building together, it means a lot to me. And it’s reassuring to know that the songs that I’m writing and all the work that my team and I are putting in every day is paying off.”
The upcoming Academy of Country Music Awards will air on May 16 via Prime Video, streaming live across more than 240 countries and territories from the Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas. Moroney hasn’t yet given too much thought just yet to how she will celebrate if she takes home some one or more ACM Awards trophies, saying, “I’m just taking it all in today. But I think I would definitely celebrate with some tequila or something. My songwriter friends are going to be there and just getting to hang out with everyone that I don’t always get to see when I’m on the road is just such a treat.”
Building on the momentum of her 2023 debut studio album Lucky, Moroney recently began letting fans in on new music, including “No Caller ID” and “28th of June,” seeding an impending new album release.
“The album is 98%, maybe 99% done. I’m just kind of tweaking the mixes and stuff,” she tells Billboard. “There are no drastic changes in sound, but I do think the happy songs are happier and the sad songs are sadder. I think it’s a great look into the last year of my life and my songwriting.”
Though she says there are no straightforward collaborations on the album, she does hint, “I do have someone pretty cool singing some background vocals on one of the songs.”
Though her career is still on the ascent, Moroney has some big, sparkling dreams for expanding her empire: “I hope I’ll have a bar on Broadway, and I would love my own boot line, since I’m obsessed with boots, as everyone knows. That is definitely on my radar. I’m still in a building period right now with my career, but it’s something I think about and something we’re trying to plan for.”
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