Even she admits it.
Earlier this year, Jessie Murph was nominated for New Female Artist of the Year at the 2025 Academy of Country Music Awards, along with names like Kassi Ashton, Ashley Cooke, Dasha, and the award’s eventual winner, Ella Langley.
Now, that’s not really a strong class of nominees. Ella is by far the biggest name, although Ashley Cooke has had a big year and Dasha obviously had her breakout single “Austin.” (And Kassi Ashton has been around for years after signing her record deal way back in 2017).
But it almost seems like they were struggling to find nominees, which is why Jessie Murph was thrown in there to round out the category – because even she admits that she’s not country.
Country fans may be familiar with the 20-year old Alabama native from her collaborations with Koe Wetzel on “High Road” (which upset a lot of people) or Jelly Roll for “Wild Ones.” But as far as her own music…well, there’s not really anything country about her new stuff.
Murph has recently gone viral with her song “Blue Strips,” which is about throwing $100 bills at the strip club. And her latest music video for her song “1965” has caused a lot of controversy for featuring a full-on sex scene, after showing a small child in the shot immediately before it.
It’s also not country in the slightest:
“I might get a little slap-slap, but you wouldn’t hit me on Snapchat
Don’t f—in’ text me at 2 AM sayin’, “Where you at, at?”, boy, f–k you”
@jessiemurphhh
And apparently even Jessie is a little confused about how she was nominated for an ACM Award.
During a recent appearance on the Zach Sang Show, she was asked about the nomination and admitted that she didn’t feel like she deserved to be included in a country music category:
“No, that was such a big surprise…
I wouldn’t look at me and be like, ‘That’s a country artist.’ I don’t know that I deserved to be in that category. I feel like there’s other country artists that maybe deserved to have that spot.”
She says that while she had a good time at the show, she doesn’t really care too much about genre, comparing it to a dress code that restricts creativity:
“I love mixing genres and I think that I’ll always do it… I don’t like the thought of boxing myself in to express myself.”
@zachsangshow @J E S S I E M U R P H doesn’t think she deserved to be nominated for the 2025 ACM Award for New Female Artist of the Year #jessiemurph #acm #country #zachsangshow #zachsang #danzolot #fyp
Of course her nomination wasn’t the only controversy surrounding her appearance at the ACM Awards back in May.
Jessie also got quite a bit of criticism for her date to the ceremony: Her pet pig, Wilbur.
It seemed like Wilbur was a big hit, with all of her fellow artists stopping to greet the pig and ask questions about her date.
@jessiemurphhq the girls and Wilbur❤️🩹
But on social media, a lot of people weren’t a fan.
Many took to the comments on Jessie’s Instagram post showing off her red carpet date, as well as other videos of the two, to criticize the singer for bringing her pig to such a stressful environment for the animal:
“Let’s ignore the fact that you can see the piglet’s legs trembling”
“Why bring a sweet animal to an opening where it’s loud and over stimulating? No hate just a question”
“Poor piglet was shaking so badly. No wonder you didn’t share video. Animals aren’t props. Do better.”
“Absolutely disgusting! I saw the video of the pig being so distressed. He is not an accessory”
“Pig looks terrified – why bring him into that environment?”
“The pig was shaking the entire time, do better. Animals aren’t accessories.”
“He’s shaking. Pigs aren’t supposed to be on display like this. This is so wrong”
“That poor pig is trembling. Look at his legs. Animals aren’t handbags.”
“Animals are NOT accessories, I believe her intentions were pure but this should not have been allowed”
“I’m a JM fan but this animal is terrified and deserves better. I’m mortified”
“I’m a pig owner. That pig is so stressed and scared this isn’t cute.”
“Why in the world would she bring a pig there, Thats literally animal abuse. Poor Wilbur”
“I love Jessie, but she should know that pig isn’t gonna thrive in that type of environment. It’s clearly scared”
Of course I think the reaction was a little overblown. That pig is clearly very well taken care of, and no doubt has an amazing life. And Wilbur may have been shaking but he actually seemed pretty calm in the photos and videos that I’ve seen. No squealing, no trying to run away, just chillin’ in mama’s arms and being the center of attention.
And hey, bringing a pig to the red carpet is more country than her music…
