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Lainey Wilson: ‘Coming Home’ To The Opry

After wrapping her tour earlier this year, playing on Thanksgiving Day, and working as hard as anyone in country music (if not harder) this year, Lainey Wilson is finally starting…

Lainey Wilson poses in a gray outfit and gray cowboy hat.
Amy Sussman/Getty Images

After wrapping her tour earlier this year, playing on Thanksgiving Day, and working as hard as anyone in country music (if not harder) this year, Lainey Wilson is finally starting to wind down a little bit.

The country superstar did take some time to play the Grand Ole Opry earlier this week, where she introduced Opry's Next Stage, which features up-and-coming artists in country music.

Lainey posted several pictures of the evening and the new artists who performed as well as some of herself performing on the Opry stage on Instagram. She captioned the post, "Every time I’m back at the @opry it feels like coming home. This #NextStage class is something special… Y’all keep an eye on them."

Fans reacted to the post, including one die-hard who wrote, "Beautiful and sweet as ever you will go so far." Another fan said, "I was there for this!! And it was my birthday. Seeing you and all the Nextstage crew was the best birthday gift ever. Thank you @laineywilson for making my 46th birthday special." One more fan commented, "Such a fantastic lineup of artists!! What a wonderful show to see!!"

Wilson recently took the stage at the Dallas Cowboys’ Thanksgiving Halftime Show as part of The Salvation Army’s 134th Red Kettle Campaign. During her performance, she performed a medley of her hits, including her current radio single, "4x4xU." She also surprised fans by bringing out Jelly Roll to perform their chart-topping collaboration, "Save Me."

In the spirit of giving this holiday season, Lainey’s own charity, The Heart Like A Truck Fund launched the Heart Like A Truck Fund Week of Giving, to make donations to various organizations throughout the week in honor of Giving Tuesday, which started on December 3.

Each day, Wilson spotlighted a different organization to raise awareness and contribute to their cause. The week kicked-off with a donation to The Salvation Army, followed by a contribution to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Lainey supported organizations chosen by her fans, resulting in Wilson’s Heart Like a Truck Fund committing to donate over $70,000 throughout the initiative.

The singer is nominated for Best Country Album for her album Whirlwind at the upcoming 67th Annual Grammy Awards. The album was released via BBR Music Group/BMG Nashville this past summer and earned Wilson her best sales week as the record debuted at #8 on the all-genre Billboard 200 chart—her first top 10 entry.

Nancy Brooks has been working in the country music industry for almost 30 years. She has interviewed pretty much any country star you can think of. In the late 1990s, she started working with Dolly Parton. And yes, Nancy reports that Parton is as sweet as you would think. She loves her life in country music and has been backstage at every CMA Awards show since the late 1990s. Many of her stories are from her one-on-one interviews. She was there at the beginning of the incredible careers of many music superstars today, including Taylor Swift, Shania Twain, and Blake Shelton, and has interviewed them multiple times throughout the years.

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