Congratulations are in order for country music star Kacey Musgraves after Time announced that she was one of their 12 Women of the Year! Along with being recognized, Musgraves will perform at Times' invitation-only Women of The Gala located in Los Angeles on International Women's Day on March 8th.
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Other honorees include Michael Jae Rodriguez, Amanda Gorman, Sherrilyn Ifill, Tracy Chou, Allyson Felix, Jennie Joseph, Kerry Washington and Amanda Nguyen. Additional honorees that will be highlighted in the TIME Women of the Year include Zahra Joya, Adena Friedman and Amal Clooney.
According to Time Executive Editor Naina Bajekal and Senior Editor Feldman, the "2022 Women of the Year list features 12 individuals who have reached across communities, generations, and borders to fight for a more inclusive and equitable world."
Introducing TIME?s Women of the Year 2022, featuring 12 extraordinary leaders who are working toward a more equal world https://t.co/zeJbrF17hx pic.twitter.com/O41UYxYhpU
— TIME (@TIME) March 3, 2022
??"Kacey Musgraves isn't afraid to go there. She'll say the thing you might be thinking but would never voice out loud: Sometimes marriage means insecurity; it's easier to get high than to talk through conflict; life would be better if we could go back to being kids," Time's Lucy Feldman said in a statement.
The singer-songwriter recently released her album star-crossed and has been performing live on her star-crossed: unveiled tour around the United States for the past months. She recently spoke with Time about being a woman in a heavily male-dominated industry.
"I have been told 'no' a lot in terms of something that I would want to take a creative risk on," Musgraves told Time. "I decided I'd rather go down in flames for something I really believe in than present a watered-down version of myself that may make me more money. You have to fight that until you can get to a place where you can have total creative freedom, and I'm getting there."
Back in 2018, the country music singer won album of the year at the Grammy Awards for her highly successful album Golden Hour. Now in 2022, her song "camera roll" is nominated for Best Country Song and Best Country Solo Performance. When nominations were being announced, the singer took to social media to express her disagreement with the association after star-crossed was deemed ineligible to be placed in the Best Country Album category.
The "breadwinner" singer told Times, "Anytime you get recognized for your work, it's a huge compliment. But being able to have those things has never shaped what I'm creating. Genres were necessary in a time where you would physically walk into a record store and need to browse shelves that were categorically separated. Now, mixing genres is encouraged. I can't tell you what category any of my albums belong in because they're a patchwork quilt of all the things I'm inspired by."
Read More: Kacey Musgraves Reacts After Being Excluded From Grammys Country Category
She continued, "It can be confusing because you could listen to any country radio station and say that a lot of things you're hearing aren't technically country either, so it's worth a bigger conversation. But at the end of the day, if I made a record that makes me feel good, like I represented my truth and I was able to take creative risks, that's all that matters. It's bigger than a Grammy. Going into all these rooms and seeing how passionate people are about my songs — they don't care if I ever win another Grammy. They're there and singing just as loud either way."
