Country music star Miranda Lambert is not one to beat around the bush, especially when it comes to discussing female representation on country radio and what it has taken for her to receive her first No. 1 hit song in a long stretch.
Female artists and how they are being treated by ‘the powers that be’ at country radio have been a hot topic over recent years and Miranda Lambert is one of the best examples to highlight the major issues permeating throughout the platform.
The “Drowns The Whiskey” collaborator believes the song hit No.1 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart simply because it was a duet with someone who has a penis; male country singer Jason Aldean. Lambert hasn’t reached No. 1 since her 2013 “We Were Us” duet with Keith Urban.
Earning two Grammy Awards, 23 Academy of Country Music Awards, and 13 Country Music Association Awards during her career, the powerhouse singer-songwriter has grown frustrated with her music’s lackluster performance on country radio.
Though the success of “Drowns The Whiskey” underlines a real gender imbalance, Miranda isn’t the least bit upset with her male duet partner,“I do like this person, Jason Aldean, a lot … so it was a great song with an old friend,” Lambert explained during a new interview with The Washington Post. “It is interesting that I haven’t had even a Top 20 in a long, long time. And then it goes No. 1 because it’s a dude. But you know — if we went and looked at how many singles or records were sold for the Top 10 songs right now, I’d probably triple it on record sales. So it doesn’t matter” the singer observed.
So far, the Texan has earned only three solo No. 1 hits on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart with “Over You,” “Heart Like Mine,” and “The House That Built Me.”
“At this point, music’s just an in-betweener for advertisements on radio. But that’s fine, whatever. I’ll take both,” Lambert shared with The Post. “But there’s so many other ways to find music, I feel like people can find us and find all these artists that they love in other facets besides radio.”
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