For country newcomer Ingrid Andress, wrapping her head around receiving three Grammy nominations on Tuesday (Nov. 24) is going to take some time, she says. Equally shocking is the company she’s now keeping.
Andress, the only country artist to be nominated for best new artist this year, is still shaking her head that she is in the same category as Megan Thee Stallion. “She’s had a massive year. I just feel like because of quarantine and stuff, it doesn’t feel like I’m known. To even see my name with hers, I’m like, ‘That is dope,’” Andress tells Billboard. “I’m obsessed with her. ‘WAP’ was a massive song and I listen to it all the time, so the fact that I will be in her presence [at the Grammys] is pretty mind-blowing to me.”
That Andress tied for most nominations for a country artist with Miranda Lambert at three is equally trippy. “That’s pretty badass,” the Warner Music Nashville artist says. “I’ve listened to her for a long time and I respect the hell out of her, so that’s crazy to me that I’m even up there with her, because she’s such a strong artist for our format and much needed.”
Andress and Lambert are both up for best country song — Andress for her debut single, “More Hearts Than Mine” — and for best country album, Andress with Lady Like.
For the first time in Grammy history, the entries for best country album are all projects from solo women or female-fronted acts. For a format where women still struggle to get airplay on commercial radio, the message couldn’t be any clearer, Andress says.
“If that doesn’t move the dial for country music, I don’t know what would,” she says. “It’s not even a question anymore of whether we write good music. It’s like, ‘Look, we have Grammy nominations. What more do you want from us?’”
Andress, who was watching the livestream of the nominations while on Zoom with her manager, hasn’t wrapped her head around “More Hearts Than Mine” receiving a best country song nomination. The song, about telling her boyfriend as they go to meet her family that he will be breaking more heart than hers if they break up, is the only debut single in the field.
“I’ve been telling everybody I’m OK to retire after this,” she says with a laugh. “To have a song that’s about such a personal thing in my life be Grammy-nominated is a bit of a mind-f—. I wrote this from such a real place and wasn’t even thinking about awards, and here we are. It’s a true country song because it’s talking about a real-life situation and I appreciate everybody seeing this.”
While the Grammy Awards taking place Jan. 31 from Los Angeles’ Staples Arena is clear, much of the other details are still being planned due to the pandemic, but that hasn’t stopped Andress from already thinking about her big night.
“I did quickly have a thought of if some of us do this in person, what am I going to wear because this is my moment, it’s my time to shine,” she says. “And then I was like, ‘I am so overwhelmed. I have no idea what I’m going to do.’ I will be looking fabulous, I’m sure, I just don’t know how yet.”
