Lainey Wilson is embracing growth in the country music genre, including with a few powerhouse artists crossing musical boundaries with highly-anticipated upcoming projects.
Wilson, 31, walked the red carpet at the 2024 People’s Choice Awards — where she won the Female Country Artist of the Year honor — and caught up with Extra’s Melvin Robert. Robert asked the “Country’s Cool Again” hitmaker about her newly-released single, “Country’s Cool Again,” which celebrity she was most excited to see at the show, and Beyoncé’s country-themed Renaissance follow-up. The “Break My Soul” megastar revealed after Usher’s Super Bowl Halftime Show that she would release her country-themed album, Act II, on March 29.
“I love it. The more the merrier. I’m like, again, it’s about that storytelling,” Wilson said of Beyoncé’s upcoming collection in the country genre, and referencing a previous question about the powerful storytelling in country music. “It’s just about making people feel at home, and everybody wants to feel at home.
“Everybody’s gonna have something to say about everything,” Wilson added when Robert noted “a little bit of backlash.” “I’m like, ‘I bet you wouldn’t say it to her face!’ I love Beyoncé.”
Her upcoming album won’t be the first time Beyoncé has crossed genre boundaries into country music. The “Halo” powerhouse took the stage during the 50th Annual Country Music Association Awards in 2016 to perform “Daddy Lessons” with The Chicks. Beyoncé, born in Houston, Texas, released two new tracks after announcing Act II: “16 Carriages” and “Texas Hold ‘Em.” She’s one of several artists known for their music outside the country music genre who are planning a country-themed album and/or collaborations with some of Nashville’s biggest stars. Lana Del Rey recently confirmed “we’re going country,” and Post Malone teased a collaboration with Luke Combs after performing a Joe Diffie tribute with HARDY and Morgan Wallen on the 57th Annual CMA Awards stage in November.
“It’s really exciting to see how the country genre is growing so much,” Wilson said on the People’s Choice Awards red carpet. “It’s not just that, it’s just honestly the Western way of life. Everybody wants to feel at home, everybody wants to feel grounded. When you get on the back of a horse, or when you’re out with your feet in the dirt, or when you’re listening to a country song, I mean, the truth is, you feel at home. …(The storytelling) just makes you feel like you’re wrapped in a warm hug. That’s what continues to draw people in, that storytelling. That’s why I fell in love with it to begin with. It’s cool to see.”