The country music fans across the pond are showing up the country fans in the States.
Lainey Wilson is on a European leg of her tour right now, hitting major stops like Germany, the Netherlands, Ireland, England, and more. While she’s been rocking the stage at night, during the day, Wilson has sat down with new stations, talk shows, and radio shows to talk about her music and what it’s been like on this run throughout Europe.
On a recent sit down with a new station in the United Kingdom, Wilson was asked how she’s been received in Europe compared to the United States. Wilson candidly opened up that her fanbase in Europe was initially stronger than her U.S. fanbase, noting they were the first fans to sing her words back to her while on stage.
“It’s unreal. I know like all of the artists probably say a similar thing, but it really is true that the listeners here are a little bit different. It seems like they kind of sit on the edge of their seat and lean in and listen.
I’m a songwriter before I’m an artist, and I take a lot of pride in my storytelling, and it just feels like they really care about the story. It’s very special.”
Wilson says that the way fans in Europe react to her music is very different from the way her fans in the United States react. She shares a story about her first time touring in Europe and how that first experience set her fans from across the pond apart from her fans in her home nation.
“2018 was the first time I got to come over here, and it was just me and guitar. I was like, ‘Okay, they are not going to know me from Adam.’ But they were so excited that country music was coming over here that they went and learned everything that I had ever put out.
I’ll never forget. I was at Bush Hall in London, and I could hear a pin drop, and then all of a sudden, I heard people singing back to me. That was the very first time I ever heard people singing my music back to me. So they caught on here first before I had fans at home.”
Wilson says she’s not sure why her European fans caught on before the U.S. fans, but she feels it might have to do with the storytelling.
Ironically, Randall King shared a similar answer with the Whiskey Riff Raff podcast last year when chatting about his last run in Europe. He noted that he feels European fans don’t have access to live country music like we do in the United States, so when they get the chance to see their favorite country stars, they do their homework before the show.
“I think over there… when they know you’re coming, they dig through everything that you’ve got. They want to know, and they do their studying. I think right now, everyone is going over there to tour now.
There are a lot of people now headed overseas, whereas we were one of the first to go out, stick our neck out, and go risk… the risk and reward. You know what I mean? See what would happen. And we went over September last year, sold out everything, and came back over this year still doing it.
So, for them, I think they are just looking at it like something they don’t get a whole lot of. But whatever they do, they do it full-blown, full passion.”
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It sounds like we’ve got to step it up here in the United States, folks.
It’s easy for us to take for granted the plethora of incredible country artists here, who constantly tour and bring their music to cities near us. However, I am sure that when you have fans from other nations screaming the lyrics to your songs back at you, it hits differently for an artist and highlights that “I’ve made it” feeling.
Check out the interview while you’re here and be sure to head over to Vivid Seats to see when Lainey’s playing near you. She puts on a heck of a show, plus Vivid Seats gives you free tickets just for going to concerts, so why buy anywhere else?
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