Lainey Wilson is a Grammy winner! The reigning CMA Entertainer of the Year won her first Grammy Award, for Best Country Album, for her 2022 Bell Bottom Country album. Wilson was given the trophy by Kacey Musgraves.
“This is my very first Grammys,” an emotional Wilson said from stage, thanking her producer, Jay Joyce, co-writers, musicians and others involved in the project.
“It has truly changed my life,” Wilson shared. “I am from a farming community in northeast Louisiana, a little town of 200 people, and I’m a fifth-generation farmer’s daughter. I would consider myself a farmer too, and everybody that I surround myself with, I think they’re farmers too, but they’re story farmers. And it’s about getting up every single day, and planting those seeds and watering them, and watching them grow.
“And sometimes when you find the right farming community, you can have the harvest of a lifetime, and I truly believe that, and I think that’s exactly what this is tonight,” she continued. “God bless every single one of you. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you so much to the Recording Academy, and thank you so much to my fans. I love you all so much.”
Wilson also spoke out about the honor on social media, admitting she was, for once, at a loss for words.
“Best Country Album,” Wilson wrote. “As someone whose whole career is based off of putting my feelings into words, it’s few and far between that I’m left speechless. All I can say right now is thank you, thank you, thank you Recording Academy. Now to go process this.”
Best Country Album. As someone whose whole career is based off of putting my feelings into words, it’s few and far between that I’m left speechless. All I can say right now is thank you, thank you, thank you @RecordingAcad 🙏🏻 🥹🫶🏻Now to go process this. #GRAMMYs pic.twitter.com/Vt95svP17y
— Lainey Wilson (@laineywilson) February 5, 2024
Ahead of the Grammy Awards, the 31-year-old reflected on being nominated for music’s highest honor, and what it meant for her, both personally and professionally.
“It’s a huge deal to be recognized by the people that you look up to,” Wilson says on Audacy’s Totally Private. “I’m going to be in a building with people from so many different walks of life and so many different stories, and just a lot of hard work in the building.”
Wilson spent a lot of years in Nashville before finding any success, a long wait that she says is now finally paying off, and paying off well.
“I do feel like we are seeing the payoff,” Wilson said on CMT‘s new On the Road series. “It’s been grinding for a long time. My team has just been working so hard, my band and everybody, especially the folks on the road the last few years. They have sacrificed a whole lot to be out here, to watch my dreams come true, and their dreams too. But they would do anything in the world for me, and I’m thankful that I found people like that.”
Wilson was also nominated for Country Duo/Group Performance, for her “Save Me” collaboration with Jelly Roll, That award went to Zach Bryan and Musgraves, for “I Remember Everything.”
Wilson will headline two tours in 2024, both her global Lainey Wilson: LIVE Tour, and her Country’s Cool Again Tour. She will also perform at RodeoHouston for the first time. Find all of Wilson’s music and upcoming shows at LaineyWilson.com.