Kacey Musgraves sang "Rainbow Connection" long before she wrote "Rainbow," as shown in this adorable throwback video. Musgraves, a born entertainer, was just 9 years old in the above performance.
We already knew that Musgraves yodeled on stages across Texas by her teenage years, but it's still wild to watch even earlier proof of her undeniable talents.
Good Morning America unearthed the video back in 2019.
"Rainbow Connection" was written by Paul Williams (AKA Little Enos from the Smokey and the Bandit films) and Kenneth Ascher. Kermit the Frog's performance in 1979's The Muppet Movie earned Williams and Ascher an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song at the 52nd Academy Awards.
The song's since popped up in country music. Willie Nelson recorded it as the title track of a 2001 album, while The Chicks and Gwen Stefani cut separate versions for different children's albums.
Yet the most magical crossover moment between Kermit's signature song and country music came at the 53rd annual CMA Awards, held on Nov. 13, 2019 at Nashville's Bridgestone Arena. On country music's biggest night, Musgraves lived out past country star dreams by singing an old favorite, duet-style, with Nelson.
The Nelson duet happened during a huge string of awards show success for Musgraves, during which her 2018 release Golden Hour won the Grammy award for Album of the Year and another song about a "Rainbow" (why are there so many?) earned the CMA award for Music Video of the Year. She also took home that year's CMA Female Vocalist of the Year prize.
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It wasn't the first time Nelson collaborated with Musgraves. The like-minded artists sang Pageant Material track "Are You Sure?"
Musgraves' history with "The Rainbow Connection" inspires lovers and dreamers, but there might be an even better story involving the song. In 2018, Maddie Poppe went from singing it for her American Idol audition to performing a duet with Kermit himself en route to winning season 16.
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