If you ever wanted to know who is on your favorite singer's playlist, or what albums inspired the latest “it girl” the most, tune in for Marie Claire’s resident music franchise Listen Up. In this interview series, we ask musicians about their listening habits and the specific records that informed their taste—and inherently their journey as an artist.
Thanks in part to Lainey Wilson, "Country's Cool Again." While Western wear may be on trend and country music is having an undeniable moment in the zeitgeist, Wilson can't remember a time when it wasn't integral to her life and her upbringing in the small town of Baskin, Louisiana.
The release of Wilson's 2022 hit album Bell Bottom Country proved her ability to fuse classic songwriting sensibilities with contemporary pop-rock flare and an ineffable charm that has earned her longtime country music fans and new listeners who are riding the genre's recent mainstream wave. The album—which arrived after the singer-songwriter had already spent over a decade in Nashville cutting her teeth—featured two Billboard Hot 100 entries ("Heart Like a Truck" and "Watermelon Moonshine"), and went on to win Best Country Album at the 2024 Grammys, and Album of the Year at the 2023 Country Music Awards and Country Music Association Awards. At the latter, she won the coveted Entertainer of the Year award, making her the first woman to take home the prize since Taylor Swift in 2008. She also went on to be inducted into the Grand Ole Opry.
And now, she's riding that success with the release of Whirlwind (out now via BBR).
