Brittney Spencer’s ‘Beautiful Journey’ into Country Music Started Decades Ago Because of These 3 Country Stars (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Brittney Spencer and Parker McCollum sing at the 2024 CMT Music Awards.Photo:Gilbert Flores/Billboard via Getty

Gilbert Flores/Billboard via Getty

As a teen,Brittney Spencerdiscovered the country genre via music from trioThe Chicks. Two decades later, she’s featured on the album thatwon best country album—Beyoncé’sCowboy Carter— at the2025 Grammys.

The“Bigger Than the Song”singer, 36 — who is one of thefour Black female vocaliststhat Beyoncé recruited to sing on“BLACKBIIRD”fromCowboy Carter— exclusively tells PEOPLE about her long, “beautiful journey” from new country music fan to rising country star.

“My introduction to country was hearing The Chicks and falling in love with them, and from there, I just kind of became aware of genre — I wasn’t aware of genre back then,” she remembers of being a teen in the 2000s.

“I grew up in church, and for me it was either church music or not church music, and so for me, that was kind of a musical awakening with discovering country,” she adds. “The Chicks sent me just trying to figure out country music, and I started watching CMT and listening to local country radio in Maryland, where I’m from. … It just became all-consuming.”

Brittney Spencer, Mickey Guyton and Maren Morris perform in 2023.Todd Owyoung/NBC via Getty

Todd Owyoung/NBC via Getty

The Baltimore native recalls starting singing when she was “three or four.”

“I just sang, and I never had a moment where I was like, ‘I’m going to do this as my career,’ ” she remembers. “As a matter of fact, the only time I ever had any inclination or anytime I ever really decided something about artistry back in those days was when I was like, ‘Oh, I think I’m going to move to Nashville and pursue country music.’ I knew I loved country music, I just didn’t know if I could do it.”

“I loved it for so many years and I didn’t know if I would be able to find a home in country music —  I didn’t know if I’d be accepted,” she explains. “And so that was the first time that I really made a hardcore, conscious decision about where to go in music because I had to figure out, ‘Am I going to stay in Baltimore or go to Nashville?’ and I came to Nashville.”

Since moving to Nashville to pursue a career in country music, Spencer went viral for hercover of The Highwomen’s “Crowded Table”in 2020, was named aPEOPLE’s “one to watch” artistin 2021, released an EP (that included acover of The Chicks’ “Cowboy Take Me Away”) in 2022 andperformed at country awards shows— most recentlysinging “Burn It Down”at the 2024 CMT Music Awards withParker McCollum.

Tanner Adell, Brittney Spencer, Beyoncé, Reyna Roberts and Tiera Kennedy on Dec. 25, 2024.Julian Dakdouk/Parkwood Entertainment

Julian Dakdouk/Parkwood Entertainment

“As an artist that is genre-bending, sometimes I feel like you learn rules so you can know how to navigate them, but ultimately some of them you break,” Spencer emphasizes. “And my favorite artists who have defied boundaries in their careers, oftentimes they do that.”

“I’m starting to understand the internal processing of figuring out, ‘Oh, I don’t care about that rule. I’m going to throw that one out,’ or, ‘This one doesn’t really serve me and what I’m trying to do.’ So it’s cool," she adds.

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On Dec. 25, Spencer got to perform “BLACKBIIRD” — a reimagining of The Beatles’ 1968 classic “Blackbird,” for the first time live withTanner Adell,Reyna RobertsandTiera Kennedyfor Netflix’sBeyoncé Bowl.

“I learned a great deal being with [Beyoncé], being with her team and getting a little bit of an inside look into how things run in her world,” Spencer remembers. “Gosh, that was a really defining moment for me.”

Aside from The Chicks and Beyoncé, Spencer reveals that “so many” artists have inspired her country career over the years.

“Loretta Lynn, her songwriting, it definitely made me want to be more honest,” she says. “Maren Morris, I adore her.Shania Twain’sUpalbum meant everything to me. It’s a lot of classic country that I love. It’s a lot of today’s country that I love.”

“Every time someone supports me or gives me an opportunity, anytime someone recognizes my talent or my contribution to Nashville, to country music, I’m so, so grateful for it,” she concludes. “It helps when I feel like I’m walking uphill, and oftentimes in country music I feel that way.”

source: people.com