Kacey Musgraves “Follow Your Arrow” released

Follow Your Arrow Kacey Musgraves

Writer(s): Brandy Clark, Shane McAnally, Kacey Musgraves (see lyrics here) Released: October 21, 2013 First Charted: February 15, 2014 Peak: 60 US, 10 CW, 50 CN, 1 DF (Click for codes to singles charts.) Sales (in millions): 1.0 US Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 34.1 video, 109.84 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Country singer Kacey Musgraves was born in 1988 in Golden, Texas. She was signed to the indepent record label Triple Pop which released a digital EP in 2012. The following year, she made her major label debut with the album Same Trailer Different Park. It garnered attention right out of the gate, debuting at #2 on the Billboard album chart and going on to sell half a million copies. She was hailed as a new voice of progressive country. She was nominated for a Grammy for Best New Artist and won the Grammy for Best Country Album. The album’s lead single, “Merry-Go-Round,” also won for Best Country Song. However, it was the album’s third single, “Follow Your Arrow,” which gained the most attention. It won the CMA for Song of the Year and was named by Rolling Stone as one of the top 100 country songs of all time. Billboard magazine named it the #2 song of the year. Musgraves explained that the song started as a poem for a friend who was going to Paris and was nervous about the new experience. Musgraves gave her an arrow necklace and her poem about following your arrow. The song put forth a positive message that one should remain true to oneself, understanding that any given choice is bound to elicit criticism. She said, “Regardless of your political beliefs I think everybody should be able to love who they want to love and live how they want to live…We all want to be loved and feel the same things. Hopefully people will put aside their personal and political agendas and just agree with that fact.” SF Musgraves originally offered the song to Katy Perry who told Musgraves to keep it because “it seems like something that you would totally say.” SF Musgraves pushed for the song to be released as a single, but her record label feared country radio would reject it. Sure enough, there were some conservative listeners who couldn’t handle the song’s message of tolerance and acceptance and railed against the song for being supportive of the gay community. Some even claimed the song was an attack on Christians, WK despite no lyrical references to anything of the sort. Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Kacey Musgraves SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia First posted 9/22/2022.