Melissa Etheridge Exemplifies Why CMA Fest Attracts Artists From Beyond Country
Categoria: Musica
In this week's Country Update lead story, the country singer talks about her 30-minute set on the festival's Dr. Pepper Amp Stage.
Por Billboard | 17/06/2026
In the middle of her first-ever appearance at the Country Music Association’s CMA Fest, Melissa Etheridge mused that the experience was “like speed dating.” Her 30-minute June 5 set, she added a few days later, was just enough to give the audience a taste: “Do you like me? You want to see me again? Okay. Bye.” Related CMA Fest 2026: Florida Georgia Line, Brandon Lake, Ella Langley & More Best Moments Little Mix's Perrie Edwards Posts Stunning Photos of Wedding To Soccer Star Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in Portugal Howie D Embraces His Puerto Rican Roots in 'Coqui': 'I've Held Myself Back, But Now is the Time' Pop and rock artists have played the country-centered festival for years. Acts who’ve graced its stages include Joan Jett, Lenny Kravitz, Don McLean, The Beach Boys, Steven Tyler, Richie Sambora, Jason Mraz, Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Backstreet Boys and Pharell Williams, and most of them found their way to the big stage at Nissan Stadium. During the latest edition, June 4-7, yacht-rock prince Michael McDonald and rapper Fetty Wap landed on the main stage. Etheridge and rap’s Waka Flocka Flame played the Dr. Amp Stage on successive days, and they made additional stops on the CMA Closeup Stage. Etheridge had a public conversation with Gretchen Wilson, while Waka Flocka joined The Nappy Roots for “Country & Rap: The Black Southern Roots of American Music.” Additionally, Bon Jovi’s Nashville bar, JBJs, presented more than two dozen rock and alternative acts, topped by Cage the Elephant, in the heart of the festival’s footprint. Etheridge was there to work, using the occasion to promote her new album — Rise , featuring a Chris Stapleton duet and production by Shooter Jennings (Tanya Tucker, Charley Crockett) — and the 27-date Raised on Radio Tour, featuring co-headliner Wynonna Judd. “When you’re a legacy artist, it’s not so easy to release a new album,” she told Wilson on the Closeup Stage. The 2026 country audience, Etheridge reasoned, includes some of her fan base, and her music is compatible enough with the genre that she would likely attract some new followers. She already has her own history with country — her first two bands, as a teenager in Kansas, were country groups; she teamed with Dolly Parton in a 2003 episode of CMT Crossroads ; she penned a Trisha Yearwood single, “You Can Sleep While I Drive”; and she became friends with Tammy Wynette back in the day. “My lifestyle and stuff was always sort of outside of the country music realm, but in the last decade or so, it’s opened up,” Etheridge says. “The country music world is a place now where people are still buying albums, they want to go on the whole journey, they want to go see the artist live. That excitement for music is still there, and the kind of rock ‘n’ roll that I play, it’s country now.” Country is extraordinarily wide in its current stylistic range, as demonstrated at CMA Fest. It still boasts artists with strong traditional roots — Ri