HunterGirl on Becoming the First Country Female in Over 30 Years to Write Her Own Debut Single

American Idol alum, HunterGirl has become the first female artist in over 30 years to write her debut single. The track, “Ain’t About You,” impacted Country Radio earlier this week, securing 46 first-week stations.

The milestone is made even more tender given the song’s subject matter. Prior to landing a spot on the famed talent competition show, HunterGirl was on the brink of leaving Nashville and calling it quits in the music industry. Just before packing up her guitar, she sat down to pen this rumination. In the lyrics, HunterGirl steps outside of herself and ponders the possibility that her music could be the driving force behind someone else’s dream.

[RELATED: HunterGirl: “I Want to Make Music That Means Something”]

If you give up, if you give in / You should know that you’re not the only one who’s losing / What if there’s a little girl who needs a song / Telling her she’s beautiful when the world tells her she’s wrong, she sings in the chorus.

Songwriting remains a sacred thing for HunterGirl. After breaking the record, she joined the likes of Mary Chapin Carpenter and K.T. Oslin. “If you would have told me that one day my name would be in the same sentence as [these] legendary songwriters, I would’ve never believed it,” HunterGirl tells American Songwriter.

“I feel like songwriters are the superheroes of Nashville,” she continued.

‘They walk around in plain sight every day while creating some of the greatest songs in music. They are storytellers and memory makers. 

“When I was a kid, I always knew that I wanted to be an artist, but it was also really important to me to be a songwriter,” she continues. “I always wanted to write a song that meant something to someone. When I was writing ‘Ain’t About You,’ I never thought anyone would hear it. It was the easiest song I had ever written because I was writing without a filter.”

The singer-songwriter’s pure expression has clearly paid off. The number of people in her corner is growing by the day.

“Hunter is a generational talent, which is borne out of the fact that ‘Ain’t About You’ is a song that she wrote entirely on her own,” Ken Tucker (VP of Promotion, Wheelhouse Records) adds. “That fact alone was a benchmark that hadn’t been reached by female country artist on her debut single in over 30 years. Then, we saw the immediate reception when it was the ‘most added’ single this week. And there’s more where that came from. Hunter has a unique ability to write meaningful, personal songs that people can relate to.”

Photo by Terry Wyatt/Getty Images