Lainey Wilson took the 2023 Billboard Women in Music stage Wednesday night (March 1) to perform her hit song “Heart Like a Truck” before accepting this year’s Rulebreaker Award.
Looking stunning in gold bell-bottoms and a wide-brimmed hat — her signature look — the 30-year-old singer-songwriter sang a gorgeous, stripped-down version of her May 2022 single, which just this week reached a new Billboard Hot 100 peak at No. 29. She was accompanied simply by an acoustic guitarist and keyboardist.
The country crooner is fresh off her best new artist and female vocalist of the year victories at November’s CMA Awards, and is readying herself to join Luke Combs on his stadium tour this spring and summer. Last year, she made her acting debut on season five of western drama Yellowstone.
Wilson’s Yellowstone costar Piper Perabo presented her “determined and confident” friend with the Rulebreaker Award, which the “Wait in the Truck” musician accepted with a hug after her performance.
“This is absolutely insane,” Wilson said in her speech. “This award right here is for all the women who do things their way. The ones who are not afraid to go against the grain and paint outside of the lines. The ones who take ‘no’ on the nose and somehow turn it into a ‘yes.’”
“This s–t is not for the faint of heart,” she continued. “All the women who are coming on this stage and in this room here tonight being honored can testify.”
It’s not difficult to see why Wilson is the perfect recipient for this year’s Rulebreaker award, considering how she first got noticed by her record label: by singing a song about sticking up her middle finger. “I just got to a certain point where I’d been in Nashville for so long [and] my give-a-damn was a little busted,” she recalled in her Women in Music interview with Billboard. “I felt like, ‘Why not just say what I want to say how I want to say it?’ That’s one of the thoughts that really set me free.”
