In the last couple of years, we’ve seen several artists from other genres jump ship to country music. Pop-R&B diva Beyoncé became the first-ever Black woman to win a Grammy for Best Country Album with her Texas-inspired Cowboy Carter. Meanwhile, rappers Jelly Roll and Post Malone have both found considerable success with their own respective country debuts, Whitsitt Chapel and F-1 Trillion. But what about the opposite scenario? Here are four mainstream pop stars who got their start in country music.
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1. Morgan Wallen
Okay, so perhaps it’s still fair to call Morgan Wallen a country singer, but it’s also not wholly inaccurate to label him a mainstream pop star, either. The former Voice star broke new ground in 2021. His sophomore record, Dangerous: The Double Album became the first country album to ever spend its first seven weeks atop the all-genre Billboard 200. The CMA’s reigning Entertainer of the Year also dabbles in hip-hop, previously collaborating with artists like BigxThaPlug, Juice Wrld, and Moneybagg Yo.
2. Lil Nas X
In 2018, Lil Nas X (born Montero Lamar Hill) ruled the airwaves with his breakthrough country-rap single “Old Town Road.” Spending a record-breaking 19 weeks leading the Billboard Hot 100, the infectious earworm showcased Hill’s Georgia roots and led to a remix with Billy Ray Cyrus. Using his success in country music as a springboard, Lil Nas X leaned further into mainstream pop and hip-hop on his full-length debut album, Montero. And judging from the first two singles, his upcoming sophomore record, Dreamboy, will follow a similar pattern.
3. Shania Twain
They don’t call her the queen of country pop for nothing. After winning the ACM’s Album of the Year award for 1995’s The Woman In Me, Shania Twain gave us the blueprint for country-pop crossover success.
With ridiculously catchy hits like the title track and “You’re Still the One,” Come On Over cemented the Canadian star’s international fame.
[RELATED: 3 Huge Country Musicians Who Abandoned the Genre]
4. Taylor Swift
Shania Twain walked so Taylor Swift could run. In 2006, a 16-year-old Swift made her debut sporting cowboy boots and singing about “stupid old pickup trucks” on her self-titled album. She spent the first half decade of her career as the darling of country music, collecting a combined 20 trophies from the Academy of Country Music and the Country Music Association. However, Swift’s 2012 album Red veered much further into pop territory than any of her previous records.
“At a certain point,” Swift told Rolling Stone in 2014, “if you chase two rabbits, you lose them both.” With that, she set out to make her first album of “blatant pop music.” And that’s how 1989, and the Taylor Swift we know today, was born.
Featured image by Terry Wyatt/UPI/Shutterstock
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