Carly Pearce rocked empowering breakup songs — ranging from heartfelt ballads to “sassy” anthems — when she boldly took the Daytime Stage at the 2022 iHeartRadio Music Festival in Las Vegas, Nevada. The powerhouse singer-songwriter kicked off her set with the song that she previously called her “little sassy moment,” a high-energy song that Pearce parting ways with all of the belongings she once shared with her ex — except the diamond ring:
“Keep the house, keep the truck/ Go downtown, get too drunk/ Kiss a one-night stand with a butterfly on her back/ Take the bed where you used to lie/ Keep the friends I never liked/ And the happy ever after welcome mat/ But you ain't gonna get this diamond back/ No, never ever gettin' this diamond back/ You can keep the dog and the Cadillac/ But you ain't gonna get this diamond back.”
Pearce’s set consisted almost entirely of fan-favorite tracks from her smash-hit album, 29: Written in Stone, which released last year. The 15-track project featured deeply personal — and, for many of Pearce’s listeners, deeply relatable — songs about experiencing heartbreak and unexpected twists and turns in life. Pearce, now 32, previously told iHeartRadio, in part, that 29 “opened my eyes to a lot of things in life. …I feel wiser because of the really hard stuff that I went through.”
Fresh off her first headlining tour in Europe, the reigning ACM Female Artist of the Year took the Daytime Stage in Vegas and played everything from the emotional award-winning song, “Never Wanted To Be That Girl,” a ballad she duets with fellow country star Ashley McBryde (which is nominated for four CMA awards), to the dance-worthy “Next Girl,” which serves as a much-needed “heads up” to the next girl who encounters her ex.
Pearce also performed her latest radio single, “What He Didn’t Do,” which countless crowds have loved as they powerfully sing every word during concerts. Pearce wrote in her caption on Instagram, after a few days of teasing the single:
“Life goes on. You KNOW that when you’re reeling…feeling like the fool and so hurt... but then there’s a moment when those emotions start to clear. That’s when you look in the mirror and you ask yourself what happened and try to learn from your mistakes. That’s where ‘What He Didn’t Do’ came from. To me, it’s really a song of hope and trying to get smarter before moving forward.”
Pearce closed her iHeartRadio Music Festival Daytime Stage set with a rendition of “I Hope You’re Happy Now,” her smash-hit collaboration with Lee Brice: “I hope you find what you were looking for/ I hope your heart ain't hurting anymore/ And you get moving on, all figured out/ And you don't hate me somehow/ ‘Cause I hope you're happy now.”
In case you missed it, or just want to re-live all of the amazing performances, The CW will air a two-night television special on October 7th and October 8th from 8pm-10pm ET.