Taken from this week’s Future Pop mailer. Click here to subscribe.
In case you wondered what happened to last week’s Future Pop, I spent most of the weekend at London’s annual country music festival, Country2Country (aka C2C). Along with the big names, many up-and-coming artists come over in the hopes of rousing a British fanbase, and I was surprised to see Jillian Jacqueline on the list. I featured her single Prime as a Song of the Week in 2016, but considered her more singer-songwriter than country. She has similar crossover appeal to Kacey Musgraves and Maren Morris, and her performance at C2C revealed she has a roster of songs that could easily take her career to the same heights as theirs. That includes recent singles Reasons, a catchy, original take on the break-up song with 13 million Spotify plays, and Somebody, an uplifting poppy track with a fun video. She also has a some strong, moving ballads under her belt, such as Hate Me and God Bless This Mess, which have more of a country feel. She needs to cultivate a more distinctive musical persona to avoid becoming an also-ran, but she certainly has the talent and potential to make it – one big hit could quickly take her to the next level.