From Portland Maine to Nashville Tennessee, rising star and Vydia artist Kalie Shorr’s determination and drive continue to help her make her mark in country music. From an early age, Kalie knew exactly what she wanted in life and made her plan on how she was going to get there. She jumped into music at the age of 6 when she wrote her first song and by age 13,  she was performing with her guitar. By taking extra classes, she was able to graduate early from high school, secure a full time job, and make enough money to move across the country to Nashville at 18 years old. Upon arrival, she took a job selling hot dogs which would allow her the freedom to make some cash while focusing on writing and performing song.

Persistence started to pay off when she landed a gig performing at a weekly showcase featuring young country female artists called the Song Suffragettes. This tight-knit community fostered Shorr’s musical talent and later that year her song “Fight Like a Girl”, caught the attention of SiriusXM, launching her first radio single into the sound waves. The song received massive airplay on CMT and Radio Disney Country, in addition to being featured as the “YouTube Country Spotlight” and highlighted as a “Highway Find” on SiriusXM.

Kalie is breaking into the country scene during a pivotal time. For the past 7 years, there has been a lack of opportunity for women in country music as they struggled to get airplay. From 2008-2015 only 32% of female artists received a Top 20 single compared with 57% of their male counterparts. Even worse in the past 8 years, 75% of male country artists scored a follow up hit, when only two total were able to do the same. Country superstars like Miranda Lambert have attempted to shed light on this issue of gender inequality by showcasing young female talent in their national tours. In more of a grassroots effort, Taste of Country Music coined #LetTheGirlsPlay to not only promote young female singers and songwriters, but also continue to raise awareness and change the imbalance. Kalie embodies this movement by incorporating the message of female empowerment into her music and corresponding music videos.

Kalie Shorr is one of the newest additions to the expanding Vydia user base.  She utilized our platform to publish and distribute her new video “He’s Just Not That Into You” on Vevo and CMT. We interviewed Kalie to learn more about her video and role in the country music industry. Here is what she had to say:

After the success of “Fight Like A Girl”, how did you choose “He’s Just Not That Into You” for your next video?

Fan reaction! I had a show this summer in Huntington Beach for 4,000 people. I had just written “He’s Just Not That Into You” so my band hadn’t had a chance to learn it before the show but I was so excited to play it that I ended up doing it acoustic in the middle of our set. After the show in the meet & greet line, everyone was asking about it. I saw a lot of tweets about it on social media too after people heard it on the Song Suffragettes’ Periscope. I knew the second I wrote it that it was special, but the fans really made me want to release it!

What is your strategy with your music videos to make yourself stand out?

I think it’s so important to make sure that every video I release shows a part of my personality. I want to take the viewers through the emotion and inspiration for the song and I want them to walk away feeling like they know me.

Can you explain your role in the #LetTheGirlsPlay movement and how it has influenced your music and videos?

I got involved with the Song Suffragettes and #LetTheGirlsPlay at the very beginning of the movement and it has been so amazing to watch it grow. Being part of it has made me very conscious of my job as a female artist- to make sure I am always uplifting and supporting of other women. In both music videos I’ve done, I’ve tried to make girl power the biggest theme. In “Fight Like A Girl”, it is a lot more metaphorical but in “He’s Just Not That Into You”, it’s more literal. We wanted to make the focus less on how awful the guy was for being a player and more on how amazing girlfriends are because they are honest when it’s hard to be. And all of the girls in the video are my real life best friends-  and every single one of them is a Song Suffragette!

What was the biggest transition from performing on stage with the Song Suffragettes to getting in front of the camera filming a music video?

It’s so fun because you get to be so much more animated. I loved the performance scenes in the “He’s Just Not That Into You” video cause they were so big and funny and sassy. I’m definitely more subtle on the Song Suffragettes stage so it was fun to get to crank my personality up to 11 for a day.

Both “Fight Like a Girl” and “He’s Just Not That Into You” have the reoccurring theme of female empowerment. Will we see this theme in future videos as well?

Yes! My new project is exploring a lot of different themes, but girl power is woven through all of that. It’s such a huge part of who I am as a person and artist. I can’t wait to get started on the next video!

Check out Shorr’s newest single on Vevo or catch it on CMT! You can also follow her on Twitter and Instagram or keep an eye out on our Vydia platform to see what’s next for this rising star!