NEW IN VIBE: KACEY AND ZZ
Two female singer/songwriters—with decidedly different styles—join our Vibe-Raters roundup this week.
Jumping in at #13 is Mercury Nashville’s Kacey Musgraves, who’s grabbed Country radio’s attention in a big way with “Follow Your Arrow” from her acclaimed debut, Same Trailer Different Park, which has scored a double-wide’s worth of “Best of the year” reviews. Prior single “Merry Go ‘Round” was certified gold.
Musgraves is the first new female artist ever to get six CMA nominations, including Album, Female Vocalist, New Artist, Single and Song of the Year (twice in the latter category); she’s tied with none other than Taylor Swift. She’ll perform at the Nashville awards show on 11/6.
She just completed tours with Little Big Town and Kenny Chesney and will join Lady Antebellum on the road early next year; an Austin City Limits taping is slated for 11/25. She has a video in pre-production; her prior clips have scored a cumulative 8.1 million YouTube views.
Musgraves will lend her chops to tonight’s all-star We Can Survive benefit (spearheaded by Katy Perry) at the Hollywood Bowl.
At #16 is a re-entry, Boardwalk/Hollywood’s ZZ Ward, whose “365 Days” is getting big traction at Hot AC and Triple A and was just added at VH1.
The artist is on tour through December, with appearances at the Life Is Beautiful Fest, Voodoo Fest and 91X Acoustic Xmas. Her TV itinerary includes The View (10/23) and Letterman (12/10), and multiple synchs—on New Girl, The Good Wife, Nashville, The Voice, Pretty Little Liars and hit film comedy We’re the Millers, among others—have kept her in viewers’ ears.
Ward’s prior single, “Put the Gun Down,” earned more than 2.3 million online views. She’s also earned rapturous reviews; “Her energy evokes Tina Turner’s, her chops Aretha Franklin’s and her soul Etta James,” wrote the N.Y. Times, while USA Today praised her “unapologetic blend of hip-hop, blues and Pop.”
In other Vibe news, three other female acts, Lorde, Ariana Grande and HAIM, move into the top three spots. To learn more, go here.
You can read more about Musgraves and Ward in the freshly minted New and Developing Artists issue of our magazine, HITS. It’s like a website, only on shiny paper!
