In a recent interview with The Washington Post, Miranda Lambert discussed country radio's gender imbalance.
When asked about her most recent No. 1, "Drowns the Whiskey," a duet with Jason Aldean, Lambert spoke candidly about how being paired with a male singer resulted in her first Top 20 hit since early 2017. ("Tin Man," the third single from Lambert's 2016 album The Weight of These Wings peaked at No. 15 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart in 2017).
"Yes, I had to sing with someone with a penis to get a number one," Lambert told The Washington Post. "I do like this person, Jason Aldean, a lot .?.?. so it was a great song with an old friend."
Lambert noted that while her recent singles have struggled on country radio, her record sales are still as high as ever.
"It is interesting that I haven't had even a Top 20 in a long, long time. And then it goes No. 1 because it's a dude," Lambert said. "But you know — if we went and looked at how many singles or records were sold for the Top 10 songs right now, I'd probably triple it on record sales. So it doesn't matter."
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Lambert said people are turning to other avenues besides radio to find her music and new music from other artists who haven't been embraced by the industry
"At this point, music's just an in-betweener for advertisements on radio. But that's fine, whatever. I'll take both," Lambert said. "But there's so many other ways to find music, I feel like people can find us and find all these artists that they love in other facets besides radio."
Lambert is far from the only artist to address the lack of women on country radio. Recently, Sara Evans expressed her frustration with sexism within country radio.
"I am, and have been for several years, devastated to see how the genre I grew up on and made my career on has changed. The obvious and most maddening change to me has been the blatant stonewalling of female artists," Evans wrote on Twitter. "One day I'm a country artist with hits on country radio and the next, I can't even get one spin on ANY of my new music."
Lambert will perform at the 2018 CMA Awards on Nov. 14. The country star will perform twice—once with the Pistol Annies and again with fellow nominee Jason Aldean.
Lambert is nominated for Female Vocalist of the Year, Single of the Year (for "Drowns the Whiskey") and Musical Event of the Year (for "Drowns the Whiskey").
The Pistol Annies, made up of Lambert, Ashley Monroe and Angaleena Presley, released their third album Interstate Gospel on Nov. 2. The album is currently No. 1 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart.
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