Country Artist Tiera Kennedy Talks Forging Her Own Path After Boost From Beyoncé

Tiera Kennedy will always look back on the first half of 2024 as the start of an artistic renaissance ― thanks, in part, to a surprise boost from Beyoncé. Last month, the Nashville-based singer-songwriter unveiled “I Ain’t a Cowgirl,” the first single from her forthcoming debut album, “Rooted.” The tender, guitar-driven ballad reflects her decision to forge her own path as a country musician, despite not adhering to the tried-and-true mode many associate with the genre. “For a long time, I was masking a lot of my emotions because I didn’t want to come off as ungrateful,” Kennedy told HuffPost. “But this is a tough industry. I was at a place in my life and in my career where things were out of my hands, and that’s a difficult place to be. I felt more free putting that into a song, as opposed to trying to skim over the fact that I was unhappy.”