Country Artist Tiera Kennedy Talks Forging Her Own Path After Boost From Beyoncé

The Alabama native has been grinding in Nashville for eight years — now, she’s on the cusp of releasing her first full-length album.

Tiera Kennedy will always look back on the first half of 2024 as the start of an artistic renaissance ― thanks, in part, to a surprise boost from Beyoncé.

Last month, the Nashville-based singer-songwriter unveiled “I Ain’t a Cowgirl,” the first single from her forthcoming debut album, “Rooted.” The tender, guitar-driven ballad reflects her decision to forge her own path as a country musician, despite not adhering to the tried-and-true mode many associate with the genre.

“For a long time, I was masking a lot of my emotions because I didn’t want to come off as ungrateful,” Kennedy told HuffPost. “But this is a tough industry. I was at a place in my life and in my career where things were out of my hands, and that’s a difficult place to be. I felt more free putting that into a song, as opposed to trying to skim over the fact that I was unhappy.”

Watch the music video for “I Ain’t a Cowgirl” below.

As to what listeners can expect from “Rooted,” due out this fall, she said: “Most of it stems from personal relationships. There are a lot of songs about my husband [Kamren Kennedy], but it also spans the grief process. We tap into a bit of anger. This is who I am, unapologetically.”