Billboard Country Live

Carly Pearce, Lily Rose, Madeline Edwards and Lady A member Hillary Scott joined Beverly Keel, Middle Tennessee State University dean of the College of Music and Entertainment, to discuss the ongoing struggle of women artists in country music. The panelists discussed building careers despite the general lack of support from country radio, while also celebrating the supportive community women artists have cultivated.

Keel noted a recent study from Dr. Jada Watson and Jan Diehm of The Pudding that showed that country radio plays back-to-back songs from women artists less than 1% of the time. The stats from the study are even worse for women of color and LGBTQ+ artists — though the greater country music industry has made strides in welcoming a more diverse range of country music artists. 

Edwards noted that when she was having conversations with executives at Warner Music Nashville, where she signed last year, she asked them, “Are you signing me because this is a checkbox on your social consciousness and you just need to sign a Black female right now, or is it about me and believing in my music?”

“It’s good to ask those questions and wrestle with those kinds of things,” she continued, “because I truly believe that [Warner Music executives] have my best interests at heart. It really is about my music and that gives me a lot of encouragement.” 

Rose spoke of the tireless, dedicated work that CMT’s Leslie Fram has done to support women artists in country music, most notably, the CMT Next Women of Country franchise. Earlier this year, CMT’s Next Women of Country celebrated its 10 year anniversary. 

“We’ve all grown up in a society where in entertainment and movies and TV, the women are kind of pitted against each other,” Rose said. “At the 10 year anniversary, they had almost every single woman from the 10 classes. And you just look around, it’s like 110 female artists, the camaraderie’s through the roof, the vibes are great. It’s really cool that we all have each other’s back … Even having conversations like this, where we get to be vulnerable and talk about the things that are potentially not progressing and what we can do to make them stronger and more hopeful for us moving forward.” 

Pearce offered a personal anecdote that highlighted the camaraderie of women artists in country music, sharing how Scott showed her kindness and an example of welcoming in the next generation of women artists into the country music fold. 

“We were traveling overseas, and it is not glamorous,” Pearce said. “You have to take these ferries through the night. [Hillary] did not even have speak to me, but she came in and she was like, ‘How are you getting over to Ireland? I said, ‘I’m going on a ferry,’ but she said ‘No, you’re not. You’re going with us.’ She knew as a female how hard it was to travel in those kind of circumstances. She let me ride on her plane and she bought me a room at the hotel [they were staying at]. She has shown me true kindness and humility. To meet somebody that has influenced you so much and for them to exceed your expectations, it pushes me to make sure that somebody one day will say that about me.” 

“I feel like there’s a theme we’ve been circling around this whole time, which you can apply to life in general,” Scott summed. “Show up and be there for whoever you’re in front of and be the person you wish you had.” 

On Wednesday (June 7), Billboard hosted a series of intimate conversations and panels with country legends like Garth Brooks and rising stars like Jelly Roll. Titled Billboard Country Live in Conversation, the one-day ticketed conference for fans and industry insiders took over Marathon Music Works in Nashville. Jelly Roll closed out the eventful day, during […]