Lainey Wilson Talks Future of Women in Country Music: ‘I See a Big Change Happening and It’s About Damn Time’

Lainey Wilson got to relax a bit at Wednesday night’s (March 6) Billboard Women in Music 2024 event. After performing and taking home the Rulebreaker award in 2023, the “Heart Like a Truck” singer was happy to present and talk about where she sees the future of country music going.

“That’s an easy one for me,” said Wilson. “I will say I do feel a shift in the genre and I feel like I’m a part of that shift and I’m very proud to be. At the end of the day us girls we got a lot to say and I think it’s really important to hear our side of the story and I’m excited to see the direction it’s going in. And I think it’s only up from here. I see a big change happening [and] it’s about damn time!”

Wilson promised “we still breaking rules,” as she talked about how women in the industry simply have to run riot over the system. “You have no choice,” she said. “Honestly, everybody here is a rule-breaker in their own kind of way… at the end of the day we’re going against the grain in a way that is hard to explain. You gotta be half-way crazy and hard-headed everything else and I am all of those things.”

The singer was also excited to present the Group of the Year award to K-pop stars NewJeans. “It’s awesome. Any opportunity I get to just be in a room from people from so many different walks of life,” she said of expanding her musical horizons while noting that she’s from Baskin, Louisiana, a northeastern town of just under 300. “To be in a room with such incredible talented women from all different walks of life, it’s kind of hard for me to wrap my head around.”

Asked who she was fangirling over at the awards, Wilson admitted that the K-pop quintet has got her on a “NewJeans kick,” while hoping that she would get to officially meet Hanni, Danielle, Minji, Hyein and Haerin.

Fans can stream the Billboard Women in Music 2024 Awards at 8 p.m. ET here tonight (March 7).