Country music has historically been a boys club. Hell, some people even call it "bro-country."
Female country artists weren't getting promoted, played on the radio, or winning awards.
Well in 2019, that seems to be changing. Or at least being addressed.
Karen Fairchild and Kimberly Schlapman, of Little Big Town joked about the lack of female representation at this year's CMT Awards. The show also featured a performance of "Delta Dawn" from female country singers both past and present. The same award ceremony featured Little Big Town, Kelsea Ballerini, and Maren Morris & Sheryl Crow performing their own empowering song, entitled "Prove You Wrong." At the awards, Carrie Underwood took home the major award, "Video Of The Year," and Ashley McBryde won the "Breakthrough Video Of The Year."
But has this helped?
Well let's look.
The People's Choice Awards. Always a good sense of what the American people want. Both the winners and finalists are chosen by the fans. In the category of "The Country Artist of 2019," Underwood, Morris, and Ballerini, are all nominees. While three out of eight might seem small, it's better than last year's one out of five, with Underwood being the only nominee.
Earlier this year, Kacey Musgraves swept the Grammys with her album "Golden Hour."
But let's not just look to award shows. Let's look at the charts.
Country trio, Runaway June, recently became the first all-female group since the Dixie Chicks in 2003, to break the top five. And they did so with an empowering song entitled "Buy My Own Drinks."
Ballerini has also been consistently releasing empowering female anthems, scored her biggest debut with her new song "homecoming queen?," debuting at 22.
Morris, Brandi Carlile, Amanda Shires, and Natalie Hemby, formed the band "The Highwomen," a reboot of the 80's & 90's supergroup of male country singers. Their album debuted at number one, the first to do so by a female group since the Pistol Annie's in 2011.
Safe to say, the ladies are taking over country. And we all love it.