HunterGirl was Idol’s runner-up. Then Ella Langley cut her song

She wrote for veterans while building a career in Nashville

Before American Idol, HunterGirl combined club work with a music business education. She wrote songs and sang in Nashville clubs while studying at Middle Tennessee State University, graduating in May 2020. By the 2022 finale, she was a staff writer for Freedom Sings USA’s Chattanooga offices and the founding songwriter for its all-female veterans songwriting class. She also worked with Operation Song. The work involved helping former service members put their experiences into music, a use for songwriting that became part of the story viewers met on television.

Her original songs reached Idol’s audience in 2022

HunterGirl auditioned for American Idol’s 2022 season with Rascal Flatts’ “Riot.” Luke Bryan praised her country voice and invited her to perform at his Nashville club, where the judges presented her with a Platinum Ticket. During the Top 20, she sang her original “Heartbreak Down,” which drew a comparison to country radio from Lionel Richie. Her finale included Bruce Springsteen’s “Dancing in the Dark,” her own “Red Bird” and a return to “Riot.” She finished as runner-up on May 22. The run had given television viewers a chance to hear her as a songwriter as well as a singer.

Her radio debut began as a private song about doubt

19 Recordings/BMG announced HunterGirl’s signing on October 14, 2022. In October 2023, her country-radio debut, “Ain’t About You,” arrived with Lindsay Rimes producing and HunterGirl as its sole writer. She had written it two weeks before her Idol audition, during a 45-minute conversation with Jesus. Friends were getting recording and publishing deals, and she was questioning her own progress in Nashville. She kept the song private until she sang it at a barbecue and received encouragement from fellow Idol singers. Its first week at radio brought 46 station adds, carrying that personal account of uncertainty into her recording career.

Tennessee Girl put her writing at the center in 2024

HunterGirl made her Grand Ole Opry debut on March 2, 2024, singing “Ain’t About You” and the then-unreleased “Clockworks.” She received a standing ovation, and representatives from MTSU surprised her onstage with a customized blue flight jacket honoring her work with veterans. On June 7, she released the six-song EP Tennessee Girl, produced by Lindsay Rimes. She wrote or co-wrote every track. “Pretty Much,” written with David Fanning, Josh Kear and Andy Sheridan, addressed beauty standards and learning to accept herself. HunterGirl described the EP’s songs as “pieces of my heart and my story,” giving her label debut a personal frame.

Ella Langley released their apartment co-write in 2024

Another HunterGirl writing credit reached listeners on August 2, 2024, when Ella Langley released “monsters” on hungover. HunterGirl shared the writing credit with Langley and Joybeth Taylor. Will Bundy produced the recording. In a June 2026 interview with iHeartCountry, HunterGirl recalled the three of them writing in the old apartment she had shared with Taylor. She described the experience as “so special getting to tell her story.” She discussed the session alongside her work helping veterans turn their experiences into music. Her writing now had a place on another country singer’s album.

Trent Willmon helped her shape a new sound in 2025

In 2025, HunterGirl started working with producer Trent Willmon as she tried to decide what she wanted her music to sound like. “Everything I said, he would listen,” she told Everything Nash that October. She described changing parts, putting them back and building the songs together. “Dirt,” released on October 10, drew on her childhood in Winchester, Tennessee, and was written with Warren Garrett. Its opening memories came from hunting trips with her father, who made hot chocolate for her and coffee for himself. Their mornings included biscuits from a gas station called L&L’s. A conversation about those routines became the start of the song.

She described 2025 as a year of personal healing

The search for direction also reached her daily life. Speaking with Caroline Hobby on the January 28, 2026 episode of Get Real, HunterGirl described 2025 as a year of healing and said she had gone to therapy. She recalled feeling sad and empty, and deciding to make a change. She spoke about reading her Bible and making self-acceptance a daily practice. Outdoor walks and exercise became activities she enjoyed. She connected that work to “Pretty Much,” recalling how women in the audience responded when she first sang the song live.

“Somewhere Wild” returned to her grandfather’s creek

Released on January 9, 2026, “Somewhere Wild” grew from that search for direction. HunterGirl wrote it with Jeff Garrison and Bob DiPiero, and Trent Willmon produced it. The song drew on a childhood place beside a creek that her grandfather called The Wilderness. He had the children say its name three times before they ran into the woods to play. In her February interview with People, she recalled finding their old campfire pit during the previous Christmas. The memory brought back the freedom she associated with childhood. She called writing the song a marker of her journey toward understanding herself again.

• Listen to “Somewhere Wild” on Apple Music

A Broadway encounter became her next single in 2026

HunterGirl released “Come and Get Your Boy” on March 6, 2026, with Trent Willmon producing. She wrote it with Brock Berryhill, Jessie Jo Dillon, Jesse Frasure, Jaxson Free and Taylor Phillips. The story came from her years performing on Nashville’s Broadway. At CMA Fest in June, she told iHeartCountry about a man who showed her his wife’s picture and requested their wedding song. When she later saw him with another woman, she responded by playing cheating songs until he departed. During the same interview, she spoke about meeting fans at CMA Fest and said she had been writing and working in the studio. She said she was excited for listeners to hear the music she had been making.

• HunterGirl: career and music
• Listen to HunterGirl on Apple Music
• Listen to “Come and Get Your Boy” on Apple Music