Photo: Rachel Kaplan for iHeartRadio
Carly Pearce’s sassy kickoff to her set marked an electrifying moment at the 2023 iHeartCountry Festival presented by Capitol One on Saturday night (May 13). Pearce lit up the stage with her bold breakup anthem, “Diamondback,” as she delivered an unforgettable performance for the Moody Center crowd in Austin, Texas.
This year’s iHeartCountry Festival marked the first that Pearce has played since her history-making victory at the 65th annual Grammy Awards earlier this year. The Kentucky-born singer-songwriter included two of her smash-hit duets in her setlist on Saturday night, including the Grammy-winning heartache song, “Never Wanted To Be That Girl.” Pearce knew she wanted a little “extra girl power” when she sat down to write it, and fellow singer-songwriter Ashley McBryde joined to kick it up a notch. The ballad’s Grammy victory was the first time that two women have been the winners of the Best Country Duo/Group Performance category.
“Never Wanted To Be That Girl” was one of two duets Pearce sang solo on the Moody center stage. She closed her set with “I Hope You’re Happy Now” — assuring the audience that she is, in fact, very happy now — which she released with Lee Brice, serving as an apology to someone in her past. Pearce’s iHeartCountry performance also included high-energy renditions of two tracks on her latest record, 29: Written In Stone: “Easy Going” and “Next Girl.”
Pearce, a former iHeartRadio On The Verge Artist in 2017 who’s no stranger to connecting with audiences as she shares her story through her music, has been teasing her next chapter as she begins to move forward from her 29 era. She’s recently shared a few behind-the-scenes looks from the recording studio, including snippets of unreleased songs “We Don’t Fight Anymore” and “Trust Issues.”
“I think what fans have shown me is they want to see how I see the world,” Pearce has said of the inspirations for her next album, in a statement shared by her record label (she’s since added that she’s “so thankful” she doesn’t have to write about divorce anymore). “So, it’s been an interesting process of coming out of a season of my life that was so hard and transitioning into one that, yes, is so much fuller and richer, but also still a hard way to come out of. You don’t just blink your eyes one day and you’re healed, or you don’t just wake up one day and say, everything’s great, and yay! So, I think this one is just a chapter of my life that’s more navigating a new season, navigating to me, the best season of my life, honoring what I have been through, honoring that some of those things will live on with me as I carry through my life. And celebrating that I made it through in such a wonderful way.”