After a whirlwind year, Wilson is already setting her sights on fresh goals and exciting new ventures.
Photo Back Row L-R: BMI’s Clay Bradley, ASCAP’s Duane Hobson, Studio Bank’s Kari Barnhart, Riser House’s Brandon Perdue, Concord’s Matt Turner, Sony Music Publishing’s Rusty Gaston, BBR Music Group/BMG Nashville’s JoJamie Hahr; Front Row L-R: Dallas Wilson (BMI), Lainey Wilson (BMI), Trannie Anderson (BMI), Andy Albert (ASCAP); Photo Credit Larry McCormack for BMI
Lainey Wilson was enjoying some rare downtime at home with her dog hippie and her fiancé Devlin “Duck” Hodges when she learned she had just scored her ninth No. 1 hit at country radio with “Somewhere Over Laredo.” While celebrating this achievement with more than 300 members of the Nashville community on Tuesday night, she reflected on the song’s journey and shared her goals for 2026.
The songstress told Country Now and other outlets that the idea for the dreamy track came to hitmaking Nashville songwriter, Andy Albert while he was grilling on his back porch.
“I was grilling on my back porch, just kind of ruminating over some kind of thought. I don’t know where it came from, but I thought about ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow,’ the original, and that song just means so much to me,” Albert explained. “My mom used to sing that to me as a little baby, and I sang it at my grandpa’s funeral. It was his favorite song. And I just started thinking about that song itself, and maybe there’s some way to put a little new twist in that.”
He later brought this idea to another one of Wilson’s frequent collaborators, Trannie Anderson. The pair of songwriters were looking for a way to fill some down time while waiting in line for a ride at Universal Studios in Orlando, FL, which prompted Albert to share the unique idea of “Somewhere Over Laredo.”
“Andy threw out that hook and we started talking about different ways to write it, different storylines you could have. And we started it in Nashville a week later, and then next part of the journey, brought it to Lainey,” Anderson recalls.
The idea eventually reached Wilson during a trip to Montana. She remembers looking out at the beautiful scenic setting when she heard the start of the song for the first time and realizing in that moment that they were cooking up something special.
She shared, “Trannie’s like, ‘Man, Andy started working on this idea,’ and she starts keeping time on the side of her chair. No instrument, just singing it. And I knew when what they had started on sounded that good, just by tapping on the side of a vinyl chair, that we had something.”
The remainder of the song unfolded with the help of Wilson alongside Dallas Wilson, Edgar Yipsel Harburg and Harold Arlen. Drawing inspiration from one of the most iconic songs, “Over The Rainbow,” originally sung by Judy Garland for the 1939 film, Wizard of Oz, Wilson’s rendition of the track captures the bittersweet realization of a rodeo romance meant to drift apart, while also tipping her hat to small towns across Texas and the rest of the country.
Since she is now in a joyful and loving relationship, the Louisiana native admits she had to tap into emotions from previous connections in order to truly embrace this narrative.
“I think as a songwriter, there’s moments in time where you have to step back into a pair of shoes that you wore long time ago. Because the truth is right now I’m in a happy, healthy relationship, about to get married, and so I’m definitely not singing about him,” she said with a smile.
“But when I think about the people who are coming to my shows, it’s important for me to have a little bit of something for everybody. It’s also important for me to have lived it at some point in time in order for me to believe it, to tell the story and also have them believe it.”
“Somewhere Over Laredo” saw immediate success and became the biggest streaming debut of her career. It was the most added song at country radio upon impact and garnered over 1.16 million streams across platforms in its first 24 hours. It later served as the lead single from the deluxe edition of her 2024 album, Whirlwind.
Speaking on the moment Wilson learned it had soared to the top of the charts, she revealed, “We were watching it pretty close. And I will say my radio team really, they did their thing with this. They rolled their sleeves up and got it across the finish line. And yeah, I’ve got a great team.”
The song has now earned her two of three nominations for the 2026 GRAMMY awards. Going into the coveted evening next month, Wilson is up for Best Country Solo Performance and Best Country Song for “Somewhere Over Laredo” and Best Country Duo/Group Performance for the collaboration “Trailblazer” with Reba McEntire & Miranda Lambert.
“It just means a lot to me that people in the industry think [it’s] as good as what we thought it was the day that we finished it. And I’m just so thankful that you were blessed with this idea at your grill,” Wilson joked, looking to her co-writer.
Between the success of this single and all the other milestone accomplishments she crossed off in 2025, it’s going to be a hard year to top. However, in true Lainey Wilson fashion, she is feeling fired up about 2026 and noted that new music has already been in the works for some time.
“We’re already cooking some stuff up. To tell you the truth, we were already in the kitchen cooking it up before ‘Whirlwind’ was even out, which was a year and a half ago now,” she admitted. “I feel like we’re always writing because I don’t feel like I’m myself if I’m not creating and writing. I feel like that’s the thing that gets me through all the busyness and all the other parts of the job that exist. And so I think people are really going to love what we’ve been working on.”
She added that these forthcoming songs are going to show a new side to her artistry while also staying true to her roots and the real experiences she has through life.
“The more experience I have, the more I realize that I’ve got more to say and share and it’s going to be good.”
Wilson added, “I feel like I’m also right where I’m supposed to be and feeling more creative than ever. And it’s good. 2026 is going to be an exciting year.”
Fans already have plenty to get excited about this year with Wilson, from her headline tour hitting New Zealand, Australia, and beyond, to her acting debut in the film adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s Reminders of Him.
Plus, she’s set to join Chris Stapleton on select dates of his All-American Road Show and take the stage at major festivals, including RODEOHOUSTON.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source countrynow.com ’
