Emmy Russell is ready to launch her career after making it to the Top 5 of American Idol. Just days before the show’s finale Sunday, the singer and granddaughter of Loretta Lynn released her single “Redemption,” written about her experience after a “painful breakup.”
“There was a time when I placed all my value in someone else’s hands. But, eventually, I had to realize I was constantly being tossed between ‘I love you’ and ‘I don’t love you,’” Russell said in a statement. “This song represents my decision to no longer be the person you come back to when it’s convenient. My telling him ”it’s over.’”
“I found my redemption in being alone and admitting to myself, ‘I don’t deserve this,’ which led me to a door I’d been craving to open… I finally realized my worth by looking to God, letting the truth that ‘I am loved’ sink in,” she added. “Now I know, no guy, nor anyone else, can take that away from me. I am loved and, now, that’s my redemption.”
Russell’s single release comes before the finale of American Idol on Sunday, which will see the competition crown either Abi Carter, Jack Blocker, or Will Moseley. Russell made it to the Top 5 and was eliminated from the show last weekend.
Russell made headlines earlier this year after she auditioned with an original song called “Skinny,” and revealed she was the granddaughter of Lynn. Russell also covered Lynn’s “Coal Miner’s Daughter” during an episode last month.
Russell comes from a long lineage of musicians, including her country legend grandmother, but the young musician is hyper-aware of the pressure that comes with that.
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“When I was 15, she passed me down her guitar at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. ‘Only you’re the one that I feel is supposed to carry this,’ but at 15 you don’t know how to carry a weight that heavy,” she recently told Rolling Stone. “And so my process has been interesting. My musical journey has been very interesting with learning how to carry it correctly rather than letting it crush me.”
She added: “Meemaw did give me this guitar, so there is something to that. She saw something in me and she’s got a lot of grandkids that sing, so there must be something there. I always write, I’ve always just been a creative human, and so maybe there is a legacy there that I can carry, but in a different way than what I thought. I thought I had to be just like her. I feel like I’m more like her than I was whenever I was trying to be like her.”
