Brittney Spencer’s ‘Beautiful Journey’ into Country Music Started Decades Ago Because of These 3 Country Stars (Exclusive)

“That was kind of a musical awakening with discovering country,” she tells PEOPLE of hearing The Chicks for the first time

As a teen, Brittney Spencer discovered the country genre via music from trio The Chicks. Two decades later, she’s featured on the album that won best country album — Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter — at the 2025 Grammys. 

The “Bigger Than the Song” singer, 36 — who is one of the four Black female vocalists that Beyoncé recruited to sing on “BLACKBIIRD” from Cowboy Carter — exclusively tells PEOPLE about her long, “beautiful journey” from new country music fan to rising country star.

“My introduction to country was hearing The Chicks and falling in love with them, and from there, I just kind of became aware of genre — I wasn't aware of genre back then,” she remembers of being a teen in the 2000s.

“I grew up in church, and for me it was either church music or not church music, and so for me, that was kind of a musical awakening with discovering country,” she adds. “The Chicks sent me just trying to figure out country music, and I started watching CMT and listening to local country radio in Maryland, where I'm from. … It just became all-consuming.”

Related: David Archuleta Debuts 'Hell Together' Music Video with Rare Baby Footage (Exclusive)

The Baltimore native recalls starting singing when she was “three or four.”

“I just sang, and I never had a moment where I was like, ‘I’m going to do this as my career,’ ” she remembers. “As a matter of fact, the only time I ever had any inclination or anytime I ever really decided something about artistry back in those days was when I was like, ‘Oh, I think I'm going to move to Nashville and pursue country music.’ I knew I loved country music, I just didn't know if I could do it.”

“I loved it for so many years and I didn’t know if I would be able to find a home in country music —  I didn’t know if I’d be accepted,” she explains. “And so that was the first time that I really made a hardcore, conscious decision about where to go in music because I had to figure out, ‘Am I going to stay in Baltimore or go to Nashville?’ and I came to Nashville.”

Since moving to Nashville to pursue a career in country music, Spencer went viral for her cover of The Highwomen’s “Crowded Table” in 2020, was named a PEOPLE’s “one to watch” artist in 2021, released an EP (that included a cover of The Chicks’ “Cowboy Take Me Away”) in 2022 and performed at country awards shows — most recently singing “Burn It Down” at the 2024 CMT Music Awards with Parker McCollum.

Related: Taylor Swift Fan Catches Boyfriend's Proposal on Her Own Livestream at Eras Tour in Portugal (Exclusive)

“As an artist that is genre-bending, sometimes I feel like you learn rules so you can know how to navigate them, but ultimately some of them you break,” Spencer emphasizes. “And my favorite artists who have defied boundaries in their careers, oftentimes they do that.” 

“I’m starting to understand the internal processing of figuring out, ‘Oh, I don’t care about that rule. I’m going to throw that one out,’ or, ‘This one doesn’t really serve me and what I'm trying to do.’ So it’s cool," she adds.

Spencer — who released her first studio album, My Stupid Life, in January 2024 — followed that up by being a featured artist on “BLACKBIIRD” on Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter album, which came out in March and eventually won album of the year at the 2025 Grammys on Sunday, Feb. 2.

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

On Dec. 25, Spencer got to perform “BLACKBIIRD” — a reimagining of The Beatles’ 1968 classic “Blackbird,” for the first time live with Tanner Adell, Reyna Roberts and Tiera Kennedy for Netflix’s Beyoncé Bowl.

“I learned a great deal being with [Beyoncé], being with her team and getting a little bit of an inside look into how things run in her world,” Spencer remembers. “Gosh, that was a really defining moment for me.” 

Aside from The Chicks and Beyoncé, Spencer reveals that “so many” artists have inspired her country career over the years.  

“Loretta Lynn, her songwriting, it definitely made me want to be more honest,” she says. “Maren Morris, I adore her. Shania Twain’s Up album meant everything to me. It’s a lot of classic country that I love. It’s a lot of today’s country that I love.”

“I love Kacey Musgraves. I’m so inspired by what she does,” Spencer continues. “Glen Campbell, I love him. Willie Nelson, gosh, who I’ve gotten to be on the road with now for three years. He brings me out on the road. He’s wonderful and his story is insane.”

“Every time someone supports me or gives me an opportunity, anytime someone recognizes my talent or my contribution to Nashville, to country music, I’m so, so grateful for it,” she concludes. “It helps when I feel like I’m walking uphill, and oftentimes in country music I feel that way.”