Photo: Getty Images
Miranda Lambert ignited a fresh chapter in her music with “Wranglers” on Friday morning (May 3). The hotly-anticipated single is a fiery revenge anthem that, while looking ahead in Lambert’s career, is also reminiscent of some of the award-winning singer-songwriter’s most powerful hits so far.
Lambert began to tease “Wranglers” last month, including with a reel on Instagram that featured snippets of some of the Texas-born artist’s most iconic music videos spanning her career. Captioned with a “Wranglers” lyric, the reel reflected on Lambert’s 2011 anthem “Mama’s Broken Heart,” 2014’s “Little Red Wagon,” her 2014 collaboration with Carrie Underwood, “Somethin’ Bad,” and 2005’s “Kerosene.”
Soon after that teaser, Lambert revealed the title of her upcoming single and its release date. She said at that time that the fiery anthem is “about getting revenge in the best way… Burnin’ it down.” One day later, Lambert posted a sneak peek of “Wranglers” for her social media followers, and delivered the debut live performance during her set at the 2024 Stagecoach Festival on April 27. That performance also included duets with surprise guest Reba McEntire, including Lambert’s “Gunpowder and Lead,” McEntire’s “Fancy” and more. The pair will reunite at the 59th ACM Awards, where McEntire will return to host the show for the 17th time, more than any other artist. Both McEntire and Lambert will take the stage that evening, along with Jason Aldean, Kane Brown, Jelly Roll, Cody Johnson, Thomas Rhett, Chris Stapleton, Lainey Wilson and others. The show will return to return to Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas. It’s slated for Thursday, May 16 at 8 pm ET / 5 pm PT.
“Wranglers” follows Lambert’s duet with Enrique Iglesias, “Space in My Heart,” her live rendition of “Carousel” from the 2023 ACM Awards, “If You Were Mine” with Leon Bridges, and more. Her latest full-length album is Palomino, a 15-track collection that made its debut in April 2022. That album included “Actin’ Up” — which includes the lyric that inspired the name of Lambert’s Las Vegas residency, Velvet Rodeo — “Geraldene,””Music City Queen” featuring The B-52’s, a cover of Mick Jagger’s “Wandering Spirit,” “If I Was a Cowboy,” “Carousel” and more. Lambert celebrated Palomino’s release with an exclusive iHeartCountry LIVE show at her bar on Lower Broadway in Downtown Nashville, Tennessee.
Listen to “Wranglers” here: