In 2007, Rissi Palmer became the first Black woman to have a country song reach a Billboard chart since Dona Mason in 1987. Palmer was acutely aware of the 20-year gap, which she came to understand more as an erasure of the contributions of Black women to country music than a simple absence of their presence.
Grammy nominee Mickey Guyton on finding her way in predominantly white, male world of country music gazettextra.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from gazettextra.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Print
It’s a hard life on easy street / Just white painted picket fences far as you can see /
If you think we live in the land of the free / You should try to be Black like me . Mickey Guyton, “Black Like Me” (2020)
Mickey Guyton could make music history for the second time in four months during next Sunday’s CBS telecast of the 63rd annual Grammy Awards.
The Texas-bred singer and songwriter first made history in December when her stirring, social justice-inspired song, “Black Like Me,” made her the first Black female solo artist to ever earn a Grammy nomination in any country-music category. Her fellow nominees for the Best Country Solo Performance honor include Miranda Lambert for “Bluebird,” Vince Gill for “When My Amy Prays,” Eric Church for “Stick That in Your Country Song” and Brandy Clark for “Who You Thought I Was.”