Hailey Whitters’ “12-year journey in a 10-year town”
By Preshias Harris
As the Grand Ole Opry gets back to entertaining full-capacity audiences, some rising ‘next generation’ stars will be taking the stage.
During a Zoom meeting on June 1, Jordan Pettit, the Director of Artist Relations for Opry Entertainment Group, announced the first artist to be part of the class of 2021 in the Opry NextStage program.
Pettit introduced Hailey Whitters, a singer-songwriter from Ville, Iowa. She recalled visiting the Grand Ole Opry at the age of 15. Backstage, she boldly went up to Little Jimmy Dickens and told him, “I’m going to be in country music someday.” Dickens told her to keep on saying it. Two years later, she moved to Nashville and played her first gig at Ri’chards Café in Little Creek, Tennessee. A few years later, she was back at Ri’chard’s, but this time she was waiting tables and keeping her dream alive.
As Pettit pointed out, Whitters is “now twelve years into a ten-year town” and the release of her album, The Dream, showed the depth of her creativity as an artist and a songwriter. In his introduction, Pettit described Whitters as “so vulnerable, bold, honest and raw.” Whitters said that being part of country music and performing on the Opry stage “was all I ever wanted to do.” She made her Opry debut on August 7, 2019 and will take the stage for the Opry’s Saturday show on June 5.
Continue reading “Opry NextStage announces first artist in the Class of 2021”