Lainey Wilson was the big winner at the 2023 CMA Awards, walking away with a total of five trophies, including the night’s highest honor, Entertainer of the Year. For Wilson, being crowned the Entertainer of the Year was less about recognizing what she has already accomplished, and more about what the trophy inspires her to do with her music moving forward.
“It was huge that the people I look up to and respect voted for me,” Wilson shared with Everything Nash and other outlets at a recent media event. “It’s really cool to be recognized. And the truth is, I’ve been working on my relationships in this town for 13 years, ’cause I knew at the end of the day, I could be a decent singer, and be a decent songwriter. But if I was a good person, people would remember that more than they would remember my songs.
“And I think in situations like that, that has come in handy,” she continued. “I will say, now that we won, I’m not the type of person that’s like, ‘All right, we did it. That’s it. We’ve just won the biggest award you can possibly win.’ I’m like, ‘Okay, well, they crowned me Entertainer of the Year, so it’s about time that I show them that I am,’ for the ones who thought that I deserved it, and for the ones that didn’t. That’s just who I am, and part of my DNA too.”
Wilson, who has since added a People’s Choice Award and a Grammy to her growing collection, vows to work even harder this year than she has previously.
“At the end of the day, I take the gift,” the “Country’s Cool Again” singer said. “I accept it with an open heart, but at the end of the day, it doesn’t define me. That’s not what made me want to start writing music in the first place, and it’s not gonna be the thing that makes me continue writing music. It’s just a really nice gift from up above, of being recognized. I appreciate it so, so very much, but there’s a lot of other things that keep me going.”
Wilson’s commitment to excelling at her craft comes at a high price, including spending very little time at home. Fortunately, it’s a price Wilson is more than willing to pay.
“When I do feel like, ‘How am I going to muster up enough energy to get through all these things, that are incredible things,’ I just go back to that place of, when I first moved to Nashville, of keeping your head down and grinding it out,” Wilson said as part of CMT‘s On the Road series. “It’s really crazy how that part of me has never gone anywhere. I’m still using that part of me just to get further on down the road.”
Wilson will headline both her global Lainey Wilson: LIVE Tour, and her Country’s Cool Again Tour in 2024. She will also perform at RodeoHouston for the first time. Find all of Wilson’s music and upcoming shows at LaineyWilson.com.
Read ‘Lainey Wilson: 11 Things to Know About Her Extraordinary Life and Career’ here.