Emmy Russell Didn’t Want to Sing Grandmother Loretta Lynn’s Signature Song on ‘American Idol’

After years of shying away from her family’s legacy, Emmy Russell decided to fulfill a promise to her late grandmother, the trailblazing Loretta Lynn. Hoping to become the next American Idol, Russell wowed judges and viewers when she auditioned with an original song, “Skinny.” Finishing just shy of the Top 3, the 26-year-old singer-songwriter left us with some truly remarkable performances—including a spine-chilling rendition of “Memaw’s” chart-topping 1970 hit “Coal Miner’s Daughter.” However, if Russell had gotten her way, we may have never experienced her take at all.

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Emmy Russell Was “So Mad” When Presented With “Coal Miner’s Daughter”

Surely, it was a powerful moment—the kind that reality TV producers dream of. Emmy Russell sat behind the piano and delivered a heavenly tribute to her late grandmother. Loretta Lynn, who passed in October 2022 at age 90, wrote “Coal Miner’s Daughter about her impoverished childhood in Butcher Hollow, Kentucky.

Although Russell betrayed no hint of nerves or reluctance, that doesn’t mean it wasn’t there. “Judges picked three songs, and the only one I knew was ‘Coal Miner’s Daughter,’” she said during an appearance on The Thrivalist Podcast. “I just remember seeing that and I was so mad.”

Inevitably, accusations of nepotism had surfaced online as Russell went deeper and deeper in the competition. Some people believed she was edging out more talented artists simply because of her grandmother’s name. Performing Lynn’s most famous work, Russell feared, would simply “add to it.”

[RELATED: ‘American Idol’ Star Emmy Russell Welcomes Her First Child (And Loretta Lynn’s Great-Granddaughter)]

She Found a ‘Hunger Games’ Connection

Despite her reservations, Emmy Russell ultimately decided to perform the song. “It was weird because I just felt that still, small voice say, ‘I need you to stay. I need you to show up,’” she said. “And I got on the piano and I played ‘Coal Miner’s Daughter for the vocal coaches… which is how I wanted to play it. I had this entire vision of it.”

That vision was inspired by The Hunger Games, a best-selling YA dystopian trilogy written by Suzanne Collins that eventually became a film franchise starring Jennifer Lawrence.

Russell wanted to inhabit Lawrence’s character, Katniss Everdeen, the story’s protagonist who grew up in District 12, an impoverished region serendipitously populated with coal miners.

“I just really felt like, ‘Hunger Games, Hunger Games,” Russell said. “‘Katniss, you are Katniss.’”

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