Being a pop star is pretty much every child’s dream job (that is, until they grow up and realize they’ll have to get really good at TikTok dances), but for some, it’s just a layover on the way to their final destination: country-music fame.
Sure, some singers do it the other way around—yes, Taylor Swift, we remember your Nashville era; and yes, we all want you to make another country album, ideally one with Kacey Musgraves—but Lana Del Rey’s recent announcement that her next album would be country has me reminiscing about other major pop stars who’ve gotten a li’l Southern with it. Below, find six of the greatest pop-to-country pivots in music history.
Cyndi Lauper
Courtesy Sire Records
This ’80s phenom might be best known for crooning about how girls just want to have fun (that’s all we really want! Some fun!), but she released her first country album, Detour, in 2016, featuring everyone from Vince Gill to Emmylou Harris and Willie Nelson. “When I was a really young kid, country music was pop music, so this is what we grew up listening to,” Lauper said at the time.
Tina Turner
Photo: Getty Images
