Miranda Lambert Says She and Carrie Underwood Deserve A Ribbon for Surviving Country Music’s Toughest Era For Women

Oct 09, 2026 by apost team

For Miranda Lambert, becoming one of country music’s biggest female stars meant navigating an industry where women could quickly find themselves fighting for space.

Recently during The New York Times’ Popcast, Lambert looked back on her early career and what it was like to establish herself in Nashville when female artists often competed for limited opportunities on country radio.

“When I started, I was a pistol,” Lambert told hosts Jon Caramanica and Joe Coscarelli. She said she wanted to be recognized for her songwriting rather than for being “the pretty girl” or for conforming to expectations about how a female country star should look.

“In the early 2000s, that was kind of the thing. It’s like dress sexy, be sexy, be a pretty girl,” she recalled. At first, Lambert remembered seeing plenty of women entering country music. But over the years, she noticed the landscape changing. “Then in the 2010 era, it was like there were no females at all,” she said.

The shift was particularly striking because so many women had emerged around the time Lambert started in 2004. But breaking through was another matter entirely.

“So who’s going to break through and how long is that going to take?” Lambert said. “And then the ones that did, did.”

One of those artists was Carrie Underwood, who won American Idol’s fourth season in 2005 and went on to become one of country music’s defining stars. Lambert said she and Underwood ultimately found themselves in a very unusual position in the genre: two of the few women who had made it through.

And that scarcity had an unexpected consequence for their friendship.

Despite their enormous success, Lambert and Underwood rarely crossed paths professionally as they built their careers. Lambert explained that the two recently attended each other’s Las Vegas residencies, which created a bonding experience because they had never seen each other perform live.

“Carrie and I went to each other’s residencies in Vegas, and it was a really cool bonding moment because first of all, her show was incredible, and we had never seen each other,” Lambert said.

She realized the reason was surprisingly simple: there were so few women that they were rarely booked on the same shows. “We weren’t playing the same shows ever,” she explained.

Lambert said it was “kind of crazy” that they only saw each other’s shows for the first time about three years ago. The experience also highlighted something she says was missing during her rise: another female artist who understood exactly what she was going through.

“It’s lonely up here, and it’s a scary place,” Lambert said. “There’s highs that you want to call somebody about, and there’s lows.”

Now, she sees a different industry emerging, crediting streaming and social media with giving more artists a chance to reach audiences directly. “I’m so thankful that there’s room for a crowd now,” she said, adding that fans have more power to decide which artists they want to hear, watch and support.

That shift has also changed how Lambert views her own role. She wants to be the person for younger female country artists that she wished she had when she was starting.

“You don’t really know how to answer those questions or give advice if you didn’t actually live it,” she said. “And so I’m trying to be for people what I didn’t have.”

With her new country disco album, “Crisco,” arriving Friday, Oct. 2, Lambert is looking back on the era that shaped her while recognizing how much the landscape has changed. But when it comes to what she and Underwood endured, she has a much simpler way of putting it.

“I feel like we should get a ribbon for surviving that,” Lambert said.

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Do you think Miranda Lambert and Carrie Underwood really deserve that “ribbon” for surviving country music’s toughest era for women? Tell us what you think in the comments and share this with your family, friends, and other Carrie Underwood and Miranda Lambert fans out there!