Kacey Lee Musgraves (b. August 21, 1988) is an American singer, songwriter, and musician. She began her career in the early 2000s, when she self-released three solo albums and recorded another album as a member of the duo Texas Two Bits. In 2007, Musgraves appeared on the fifth season of the USA Network singing competition Nashville Star, where she finished in seventh place.[2][3][4] In 2012, she signed with Mercury Nashville and released the hit single "Merry Go 'Round". Her major-label debut studio album, Same Trailer Different Park (2013), won the Grammy Award for Best Country Album at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards.
Musgraves' second studio album, Pageant Material (2015), debuted at number three on the Billboard 200 chart and yielded the critically and commercially successful singles "Biscuits" and "Dime Store Cowgirl". She also released a Christmas-themed album, A Very Kacey Christmas (2016).[5] Her fourth studio album Golden Hour (2018) was released to widespread critical acclaim and won all four of its nominated Grammy Award categories, including Album of the Year and Best Country Album.[6] The album's first two singles, "Space Cowboy" and "Butterflies", won the Grammy Award for Best Country Song and Best Country Solo Performance, respectively.[7] Musgraves' fifth studio album, Star-Crossed (2021), became her fourth top-ten album on the Billboard 200. In 2023, she was featured on the single "I Remember Everything" by Zach Bryan, which debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and won a Grammy Award for Best Country Duo/Group Performance. Her sixth studio album, Deeper Well, was released in 2024.
Throughout her career, Musgraves has won seven Grammy Awards, seven Country Music Association Awards, and four Academy of Country Music Awards.
Musgraves made her musical guest debut on Saturday Night Live on May 12, 2018, the twentieth episode and the Mother's Day show of Season 43, hosted by actress and stand-up comedian Amy Schumer. She performed "High Horse" and "Slow Burn" from her fourth album Golden Hour.
She returned to Saturday Night Live for her 2nd musical guest appearance on October 2, 2021, the season premiere of Season 47, hosted by actor Owen Wilson; which coincidentally, was the first episode for current cast members James Austin Johnson and Sarah Sherman and former first-year featured player Aristotle Athari. She performed "Justified" and "Camera Roll" from her fifth album Star-Crossed.
She is also the first musical guest ever to perform fully nude on Saturday Night Live.
She returned to Saturday Night Live to made her 3rd musical guest appearance on March 2, 2024, the thirteenth episode of Season 49, hosted by actress Sydney Sweeney. She performed her songs "Deeper Well" and "Too Good to be True" to promoted her sixth album Deeper Well.
Biography[]
Her fourth studio album Golden Hour (2018) was released to widespread critical acclaim and won all four of its nominated Grammy Award categories, including Album of the Year and Best Country Album. The album's first two singles, "Space Cowboy" and "Butterflies", won the Grammy Award for Best Country Song and Best Country Solo Performance respectively. Musgraves’ fifth studio album, Star-Crossed, was released in September 2021.
Musgraves joined Lady A on the European leg of their Own the Night Tour in 2012. In 2012, she signed with Mercury Nashville and released her solo debut single "Merry Go 'Round". The song is included on her major-label debut album Same Trailer Different Park, produced and co-written by Musgraves, Shane McAnally and Luke Laird and released on March 19, 2013. The album debuted at number 2, selling 42,000 copies. It produced additional hit singles in "Blowin' Smoke" and "Follow Your Arrow". Rolling Stone magazine listed "Follow Your Arrow" at number 39 of its list of 100 Greatest Country Songs of All Time and said that Musgraves was "one of the loudest symbols of young country musicians embracing progressive values."
"Undermine", a song co-written by Musgraves and Trent Dabbs, was featured in one of the first episodes in the first season of the television series Nashville on October 17, 2012. Musgraves co-wrote Miranda Lambert's 2013 single "Mama's Broken Heart" and sang harmony on the song.
Musgraves was nominated for four awards at the 47th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards in 2012, including Female Vocalist of the Year.
Musgraves was also nominated for four Grammy Awards at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards, tying Taylor Swift and Lorde for the most nominations received by a woman that year. Those nominations included Best New Artist, Best Country Album (Same Trailer Different Park), and Best Country Song for both "Mama's Broken Heart" and "Merry Go 'Round". "Merry Go 'Round" won the Best Country Song Grammy award, and Same Trailer Different Park won in Best Country Album.
Musgraves joined Katy Perry on the North American leg of her Prismatic World Tour as well as Willie Nelson and Alison Krauss on select dates during their tour. Musgraves provided backing vocals for "Bourbon in Kentucky", the lead single on Dierks Bentley's 2013 album Riser.
In April 2014, Musgraves won the Academy of Country Music award for album of the year for Same Trailer Different Park. In June 2014, she released a new song called The Trailer Song, which she debuted on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Same Trailer Different Park was certified gold in August 2014 for selling over 500,000 copies. Musgraves' single "Follow Your Arrow" was also certified gold, and "Merry Go Round" was certified platinum.
Musgraves announced in late August 2014 that she would perform a 10-show headlining tour, titled Same Tour Different Trailer, which started on September 25 and ended on October 19.
In September 2014, Musgraves said that she had begun writing songs for her second major label album, and planned to work with Luke Laird and Shane MacAnally later in the year after her touring schedule finished."Biscuits", the lead single from the album, was released on March 16, 2015.
Pageant Material, Musgraves' second studio album, was released on June 23, 2015. To support the album, Musgraves performed on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (June 9, 2015), Late Night with Seth Meyers (June 10, 2015), Good Morning America (June 23, 2015), The View (June 24, 2015), Jimmy Kimmel Live! (September 14, 2015), The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (January 8, 2016), and The Late Late Show with James Corden (April 6, 2016).
Musgraves was featured on a remix of Miguel's single "Waves", released on February 26, 2016.
On September 7, 2016, Musgraves announced the release of her first Christmas album, A Very Kacey Christmas. The album, which features eight traditional and four original songs, was released on October 28, 2016, through Mercury Nashville. In support of the album, Musgraves embarked on a Christmas-themed tour, complete with a strings section, an accordion, a bass, a saxophone, a clarinet, and backup singers.
In September 2016, Musgraves was selected as one of 30 country music artists to perform on "Forever Country", a mash-up track of "Take Me Home, Country Roads", "On the Road Again", and "I Will Always Love You". The song celebrates 50 years of the CMA Awards and secured Musgraves her first number-one country single.
In 2017, Musgraves provided backing vocals on "All the Best", a John Prine cover, for Zac Brown Band's album Welcome Home. Also in 2017, Musgraves was featured on Outlaw: Celebrating the Music of Waylon Jennings. Originally recorded for TV, it later was released on CD and DVD. During the broadcast, Musgraves performed Jennings' song "The Wurlitzer Prize". Musgraves appeared on the June 21, 2017, episode of Hollywood Medium with Tyler Henry to receive a psychic reading and connect with her grandmother, Barbara Taylor, to learn more details about her death in a house fire. Musgraves has said that her song "This Town", from the album Pageant Material, is about her grandmother, and that her voice appears in the opening of the song.
In October 2017, Musgraves posted a picture of herself on Twitter indicating she was in the studio writing new songs for her upcoming third studio album. On December 12, 2017, Musgraves announced the title of her third studio album Golden Hour through Entertainment Weekly. The songs "Butterflies" and "Space Cowboy" were released as the first singles from the album on February 23, 2018. In March, Musgraves headlined the 2018 C2C: Country to Country festival in London after playing the festival in 2016.
Musgraves premiered "High Horse", the third song from the album, on March 22, 2018, on Zane Lowe's Beats 1 Apple Radio show. On March 29, 2018, she performed "Slow Burn" on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Golden Hour was released on March 30, 2018, on MCA Nashville. On May 12, 2018, Musgraves was the musical guest on Saturday Night Live, performing "High Horse" and "Slow Burn". Through June and July, Musgraves was the opening act on the second North American leg of Harry Styles: Live on Tour. In September, Musgraves appeared on a rerecorded version of "There's No Gettin' Over Me" with Ronnie Milsap for his 2019 duet album. On October 2, 2018, she appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! as the musical guest. In October 2018, Musgraves embarked on the "Oh, What a World Tour" in support of Golden Hour. The tour began in Oslo, Norway on October 13. In February 2019, Golden Hour won Album of the Year at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards. The same month, Musgraves released "Rainbow" as the fifth single from the album. In April, Musgraves featured on a newly recorded version of "Neon Moon" with Brooks and Dunn for their duet album Reboot. She also made a cameo appearance as herself in the country-music drama film Wild Rose, released in April. In May, Musgraves made her Met Gala debut as a Barbie doll and afterwards announced she had signed with modeling agency IMG. In August, Musgraves appeared at San Francisco's Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival, among her largest festival appearances to date. In October 2019, Musgraves revealed that she would cover the song "All Is Found" for Frozen II. The song plays over the end credits and is also included on the soundtrack album.
On November 4, 2019, Musgraves announced The Kacey Musgraves Christmas Show, a holiday special premiering through Amazon Prime Video on November 29. On November 20, 2019, she debuted the song "Glittery" featuring Troye Sivan on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. The soundtrack to the show includes collaborations with other artists, including a cover of "I'll Be Home for Christmas" together with singer Lana Del Rey The show also stars Kacey's grandmother Barbara (Nana) Musgraves. In April 2020, she appeared in the Together at Home virtual concert series and performed "Rainbow". That same month, she released an Earth Day inspired remix of "Oh, What a World".
On May 29, 2020, Musgraves was featured on The Flaming Lips single "Flowers of Neptune 6" and also provided vocals on two additional tracks ("Watch the Lightbugs Glow" and "God and the Policeman") on their album American Head, which was released on September 11, 2020. Musgraves also provides backing vocals on several tracks on Ruston Kelly's second album Shape & Destroy, which was recorded before she and Kelly divorced. On December 10, 2020, Troye Sivan released a reworked version of his song "Easy" which features Musgraves and was produced by Mark Ronson. Musgraves' song "Oh, What A World" was used in the Paramount Network original Christmas movie Dashing in December. She voiced Earwig's mother in the English dub of the Studio Ghibli film, Earwig and the Witch.
In April 2021, Musgraves revealed that she was working on her fifth studio album, which was set to be released later on in the year. It will be released in partnership with UMG Nashville and Interscope Records, her first release on the later label. Golden Hour co-producers Daniel Tashian and Ian Fitchuk will return to work on the project. Musgraves began teasing her next album by releasing snippets of new music on her 33rd birthday. On August 23, Musgraves revealed that her fifth album, now titled Star-Crossed, would be released on September 10, along with an accompanying 50-minute film which will be available for streaming exclusively on Paramount+. Musgraves also released the album's title track
In August 2021, Musgraves announced a 15-city star-crossed: unveiled tour for the album Star-Crossed. On October 2, she became the first ever musical guest to perform nude on Saturday Night Live.
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