Miranda Lambert Says She and Carrie Underwood Should ‘Get a Ribbon’ for ‘Surviving’ Male-Dominated 2010s Country Scene

Lily BrownFri, October 2, 2026 at 12:28 AM UTC

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Miranda Lambert and Carrie Underwood on ‘American Idol’ in 2025Credit: Eric McCandless/Disney via Getty -

Miranda Lambert said female artists had little country radio space as male acts dominated the genre for years

She and Carrie Underwood attended each other’s Las Vegas residencies only three years ago, the first time they saw each other perform

Lambert credits streaming and social media with giving emerging women more ways to reach listeners

While Miranda Lambert and Carrie Underwood have been two of country music’s defining female stars for more than a decade, there was a time when their success felt more like an exception than the beginning of a wave.

During the Thursday, Oct. 1 episode of The New York Times’ Popcast, the 42-year-old country singer reflected on what it was like to establish herself in Nashville when female artists were often fighting for limited space on country radio.

“I think the early 2000s, when I started, I was a pistol,” Lambert told Popcast hosts Jon Caramanica and Joe Coscarelli. “I wanted to be known for my songs, not for being the pretty girl or wearing crop tops. In the early 2000s, that was kind of the thing. It’s like dress sexy, be sexy, be a pretty girl.”

As the decade wore on, Lambert noticed something striking. There weren’t many other women coming up alongside her.

“Then in the 2010 era, it was like there were no females at all,” Lambert said. “There were so many females that came out in 2004 when I started. So many. So who’s going to break through and how long is that going to take? And then the ones that did, did.”

Miranda Lambert and Carrie Underwood perform at the 2014 Billboard Music Awards on May 18, 2014Credit: Ethan Miller/Getty

Among the women who did break through was Underwood, who won the fourth season of American Idol in 2005.

“Carrie Underwood and I made it through pretty much a solid, at least, seven years of only guy artists coming out of country music,” Lambert said. “It’s like, ‘Wow, this is really off-kilter a little bit.’ ”

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Looking back, Lambert said she and Underwood, 43, might deserve some recognition for making it through that period.

“I feel like we should get a ribbon for surviving that,” she said. “Like, that was a hard time, honestly.”

The experience also meant that, despite their stature in the genre, Lambert and Underwood rarely crossed paths professionally.

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“Carrie and I went to each other’s residencies in Vegas, and it was a really cool bonding moment because first of all, her show was incredible, and we had never seen each other,” Lambert said. “You know why? There were only two girls for so long. We weren’t playing the same shows ever.”

Carrie Underwood performs on ABC’s ‘Good Morning America’ on Aug. 2, 2024Credit: Dia Dipasupil/Getty

“It was kind of crazy that just three years ago, we finally saw each other’s show for the first time,” Lambert said.

Now, Lambert sees a much different landscape for female artists, pointing to streaming and social media as reasons there is more room for artists to find an audience.

“I’m so thankful that there’s room for a crowd now,” said Lambert. “Like, everybody has something different. I feel like all the voices can be heard, all the messages can be heard. You don’t have to love them all, but at least there’s a way to hear them. And then you decide.”

“To me, all the power now is with the fans, right?” she added. “I love that because they should choose what they want to hear, what they want to go see, what they want to put on their playlist, what they want to drive a boat to. And it’s not just one guy picking our fate.”

Still, Lambert said the most difficult part of coming up in such a male-dominated environment wasn’t simply the competition for radio play. It was the lack of women who could understand what she was experiencing.

Miranda Lambert performs onstage at the 60th Academy Of Country Music Awards on May 8, 2025Credit: Rich Polk/Penske Media via Getty

“It’s lonely up here, and it’s a scary place. There’s highs that you want to call somebody about, and there’s lows,” she explained. “I didn’t really have that person, like a female artist, that had been through the whole thing that I was.”

Lambert now hopes to provide for younger musicians, especially a new generation of female country artists coming up in a landscape that looks very different from the one she entered.

“You don’t really know how to answer those questions or give advice if you didn’t actually live it,” she said. “And so I’m trying to be for people what I didn’t have.”

Lambert’s new country disco album, Crisco, is out on Friday, Oct. 2.

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”