Lainey Denay Wilson (born May 19, 1992) is an American country music singer–songwriter and actress. Wilson performed from an early age, before going to Nashville, Tennessee, to pursue a career as a country performer. In 2014, she released her first album, followed by a second on the Lone Chief label in 2016. Wilson secured a publishing deal and later released an extended play (EP) in 2019, which included the song "Things a Man Oughta Know". In 2020, it was issued as a single through the BBR Music Group and eventually reached number one on the American country songs chart.
Wilson was raised in Baskin, Louisiana, a town of only 250 people. Her father Brian was a farmer while her mother Michelle was a schoolteacher. She became interested in music at a young age. Her family often listened to classic country music by Buck Owens and Glen Campbell. "Country music for me and my family, it was more than music. We lived the words to those songs," she told The Advocate. At age nine, she attended a performance of the Grand Ole Opry and was drawn to the music. "I just remember looking up there, being like, ‘Man, I wanna do that'," she recalled. Wilson's father taught her a couple of chords and she was soon writing songs by her preteen years. In 2006, she released an extended play (EP) on Myspace titled Country Girls Rule. In high school, Wilson took a job impersonating Hannah Montana. Often booking her own shows, she performed as Hannah Montana at birthday parties, fairs, and festivals across Louisiana, Mississippi, and Arkansas, even once performing for child cancer patients at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.
Wilson finished high school and moved to Nashville, Tennessee in August 2011. She first lived in a camper trailer outside of a recording studio in Nashville. The studio owner paid for Wilson's water and electricity to help make ends meet. In 2021, Wilson explained that her early years in Nashville were difficult: "It taught me that this thing was not going to be easy. It taught me perseverance." For several years, Wilson played a variety of small shows and worked on her songwriting. In 2014, Wilson released a self-titled album on the Cupit label. It was followed in 2016 by her second album Tougher. The disc was released on the Lone Chief label. The project garnered an audience and charted the Billboard Top Country Albums list in 2016. In 2018, she issued her second EP, a self-titled collection that was self-released. This led to Wilson signing a publishing deal with SONY/ATV in 2018. The same year, she also signed a management deal.

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