Tiera wants to hold the door open for other Black female country artists

Tiera, an emerging country artist, began pursuing her musical passions early on but she had to learn to have patience in order to get where she is today.

The "Not Your Girl" singer opened up about her journey in the music industry in a new episode for Spotify's Frequency series, which allows fans to get a behind-the-scenes look into their favourite artist's life. Spotify launched the series to celebrate Black creators on Spotify in response to a climate in which Black voices in music, fashion, business and more continue to be left out of narratives with their contributions left underrepresented. 

In her interview, Tiera spoke about what inspired her to pursue her dreams and where it all began.

“Learning to have patience has been the hardest part of it all. I moved to Nashville and I thought that I was gonna, like, play at these shows, and, like somebody was gonna discover me,” Tiera said. “That’s not how it is.”

In elementary school, Tiera’s teacher was putting on a musical and she really wanted to try out but she didn't know if she'd fit the part.

“This other girl, she fit the part, you know, looks-wise. I told my parents that I wasn’t gonna try out and they were like, ‘No, you’re gonna do this.’ I came back to school and I had gotten the part,” Tiera shared.

The singer-songwriter said that her teacher saw that she had the talent and gave her the part which taught Tiera an important life lesson.

“My teacher saw that I had talent and really gave me the courage to do what I wanted to do, even though there aren’t a lot of people that look like me,” she added.

Tiera credits her amazing, supportive parents for helping her follow her dreams. After completing one year in college, Tiera decided to drop out and focus on her music career full-time.

“When I told them that I wanted to be an artist, they took a leap of faith that not a lot of people would. They packed up all of their things, and my sisters left their school, to move to Nashville for me,” Tiera said, adding, “I was never scared. I was just excited to jump right into things.”

The Alabama native, who has her own show on Apple Music Country called The Tiera Show, said that being a musician is not a very predictable job.

"There are a lot of really long gigs at, like, restaurants. It's really hard to sing for two to three hours, to people that aren't listening to you. You can doubt whether or not this is really what you're supposed to be doing."

She continued, "Fast-forward a couple of years, I really figured out what my lane was. Ever since then, I've been able to really articulate what I want my songs to sound like. I would get messages from Black female country artists, like, 'I love country music, but I don't really know how to get into it.'"

Tiera said that over the last year, those messages have changed to, “I am moving to Nashville” and “I am gonna do this.”

“It is nice to be that sounding board for them, and so, I hope that I can just continue to be that inspiration for other people. At the end of all of this, I hope that I'm known for holding the door open for the artists after me."

It's the perfect time for Tiera to continue to inspire other Black country artists because it was just announced that she has inked a record label deal with Big Machine Label Group imprint The Valory Music Co. Tiera's new deal adds her to a roster that includes other country acts like Thomas Rhett, Sheryl Crow and more.

“When I first moved to Nashville I had this vision of what the perfect record deal would be,” Tiera said. “Above all, I wanted to be somewhere where they loved and understood the music and brand that I had built as an independent artist. I wanted to work with people that worked just as hard as I do for my music. I didn’t want to just gain a team, I wanted to gain a family. That’s exactly what I found in the Valory team. They were so enthusiastic from the moment I met them and I just couldn’t be more thrilled to be a part of The Valory Music Co.!”

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