Miranda Lambert Sees Career Best Debut with New Single

Miranda Lambert is back with a big new single called “It All Comes Out in the Wash” ahead of a new album out this fall, and the big question on a lot of people’s minds once the single was released was if radio would play it. To say commercial country radio has been lukewarm on singles from Miranda and many women lately would be an understatement. Lambert’s last two singles “Tin Man” and “Keeper of the Flame” only made it to #22 and #55 respectively. Miranda hasn’t had a Top 10 on radio since 2014.

But “It All Comes Out in the Wash” makes its entrance with its first week on radio like it was shot out of a canon. The single receives the biggest first week adds at reporting radio stations in Miranda Lambert’s career, with Mediabase reporting 108 adds, and Nielsen reporting 92. That’s good enough for Miranda to debut at #19 right out of the chute on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart, and also allows her to take the biggest gain in audience on the week with a whopping 11.2 million impressions. Only her single “Vice” debuted better on the charts, showing up at #18 after the first week.

“It All Comes Out in the Wash” is also showing solid strength in consumption, coming in at #36 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart its debut week. The Hot Country Songs chart also considers sales and streaming data along with radio play.

Miranda Lambert co-wrote the new song with the “Love Junkies” Lori McKenna, Liz Rose, and Hillary Lindsey. It’s produced by Jay Joyce, which is a shakeup from previous Miranda singles where Frank Liddell was in the producers seat. Lambert has been saying the new record is a return to her roots of sorts, and will be more aggressive and sassy. “It All Comes Out in the Wash” certainly is that.

But don’t start popping champagne just yet if you’re a Miranda Lambert fan. There are a lot of promising signs for “It All Comes Out in the Wash,” but now the single must follow through. The lead single from her last record “Vice” debuted strongly too before stalling out at #11 on radio, despite going #2 on the consumption-based Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. This speaks to the uphill battle Miranda Lambert and many other women face on country radio.

As we saw with George Strait’s recent single “Every Little Honky Tonk Bar” released in February, it debuted very solid at #20, but then stalled out at #17. Nonetheless, that consistency of staying in the Top 20 for multiple weeks gave George more mainstream country radio success than he’d seen in years. A big debut doesn’t always mean a big finish, but with Miranda and George, it means more radio support than previous efforts. We’ll also have to keep an eye out on Miranda’s record label Sony Nashville to see if they will put support behind the single, especially with such a promising start.

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