--- title: Brandi Carlile Tells Her Truth Through Song description: The Grammy–winning artist latest album ‘Returning to Myself’ has songs that tackle love and fear; selfhood and nationhood. canonical: https://time.com/collections/women-of-the-year/7377901/brandi-carlile/ article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2026-02-26T12:35:05.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-30T09:45:44.706Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Brandi Carlile Tells Her Truth Through Song og:description: The Grammy–winning artist is grappling with her role as an artist in an increasingly divided world og:url: https://time.com/collections/women-of-the-year/7377901/brandi-carlile/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltae9d72ff2f93205b/69b0485c6335622251bafefd/Brandi-Carlile_Collier-Shorr.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Brandi Carlile Tells Her Truth Through Song og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Brandi Carlile Tells Her Truth Through Song twitter:description: The Grammy–winning artist is grappling with her role as an artist in an increasingly divided world twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltae9d72ff2f93205b/69b0485c6335622251bafefd/Brandi-Carlile_Collier-Shorr.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Feb 26, 2026 # Brandi Carlile Tells Her Truth Through Song > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account. by [Andrew R. Chow](https://time.com/author/andrew-r-chow/) ## Andrew R. Chow Correspondent  Brandi Carlile Brandi CarlileCollier Schorr It’s the best of times and the worst of times for Brandi Carlile. Professionally, the 44-year-old singer-songwriter is on fire. Her eighth studio album, _Returning to Myself,_ was released in October to critical acclaim, [achieving the second highest](https://www.instagram.com/p/DQrrG6mEymw/?hl=en) _Billboard_ chart position of her career. She was a featured guest on CNN’s _New Year’s Eve Live,_ performed a poignant rendition of “America the Beautiful” at the [Super Bowl](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RK1JtOyTkvs) in February, and is now on a massive global tour across the U.S. and Europe. “I can’t believe I get to go out and play all these new songs—it’s like I’ve got eight shiny new cars,” she says. The songs on _Returning to Myself_ tackle love and fear; selfhood and nationhood. She loves them “with a passion that I have not loved songs with since I was a teenager,” she says. One standout, “Joni,” documents her blossoming friendship with [Joni Mitchell](https://www.billboard.com/music/rock/brandi-carlile-returning-to-myself-elton-john-joni-mitchell-1236095583/), whose career comeback she helped spearhead following the folk legend’s ruptured brain aneurysm in 2015\. Carlile says that her work in bringing Mitchell back to the stage, which began with jams at Mitchell’s home and culminated in iconic performances at the [2022 Newport Folk Festival](https://newportfestivals.org/sessions/joni-mitchell-both-sides-now) and the 2024 Grammys, “falls into the category of my legacy as a human—like raising my kids, marrying my wife, and honoring my parents,” she says. Given these feats, Carlile is trying her best to savor the rarefied air she is now breathing: “I’m definitely at a time in my life where I feel the most vibrant, the most aware, the most centered, the most grateful.” But she is also grappling with her role as an artist in an increasingly divided and often violent world. On the 2024 night Donald Trump was elected President for a second time, she wrote “Church and State,” singing of a failing empire. She performed a [fiery rendition](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bZnji%5FLq-g) of the song on _Saturday Night Live_ in November. “I feel a big responsibility to meet the moment,” she says. One of Carlile’s most famous lyrics confronts sexism: “You get discouraged, don’t you, girl? It’s your brother’s world for a while longer,” she sings on 2017’s “The Joke,” which won [two Grammys](https://www.grammy.com/artists/brandi-carlile/18940). Carlile says that when it comes to women’s rights nearly a decade later, “It feels like we’re in a backslide. It’s not just about what the media is saying. It’s an innate animal instinct that knows we have a heightened level of danger right now.” When Carlile sang “America the Beautiful” before the big game, the crowd roared in approval, and the jumbotron showed soldiers standing at attention from the Middle East. But Carlile didn’t necessarily think of the performance as a patriotic ode. “I view this song as much more prayer than celebration,” she says. “It can be a lament, a bastion of hope, in a time when there isn’t a lot of that on offer.” Carlile notes that the song’s lyricist, Katharine Lee Bates, is believed by some scholars to [have been a lesbian](https://gazette.com/2023/06/28/letters-recognize-bates-as-a-gay-woman-getting-the-woke-thing-wrong-cb9b8fd4-14e9-11ee-9774-4f15b46de702/), which would place Carlile in a unique lineage. Looking back on her two-plus decades in the music industry, Carlile says that while success “comes and goes,” the “one thing that has proven true and steadying to me is to have a community, a chosen family. And I think LGBTQ people have a unique perspective and ability to do this. I don’t think an artist can do it alone.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/women-of-the-year/7377901/brandi-carlile/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/women-of-the-year/7377901/brandi-carlile/"},"headline":"Brandi Carlile Tells Her Truth Through Song","datePublished":"2026-02-26T12:35:05.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-30T09:45:44.706Z","description":"The Grammy–winning artist latest album ‘Returning to Myself’ has songs that tackle love and fear; selfhood and nationhood.","url":"https://time.com/collections/women-of-the-year/7377901/brandi-carlile/","keywords":["Women of the Year","list","franchise","Magazine","sponsorshipblock"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltae9d72ff2f93205b/69b0485c6335622251bafefd/Brandi-Carlile_Collier-Shorr.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Andrew R. 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