CMT Announces Next 5 'Women of Country'

CMT's Women of Country initiative aims to spotlight and promote young, upcoming and also more established female artists who are making a difference to the country genre and should be heard.

Past alumni include Kacey Musgraves, Lauren Alaina, Brandy Clark and Ashley Monroe, who have all had commercial and critical success since it launched in January 2013. Since then the network has named 21 major label, indie label and unsigned female artists to its NEXT WOMEN list, providing support on-air and online at NextWomen.CMT.com with exclusive video premieres, live performances and more.

Yesterday CMT announced its 5 new artists to be supported. Angaleena Presley, Lindsay Ell, Lucy Hale, Natalie Stovall and Nikki Lane will receive promotion via various aspects of CMT's media range.

“When we first launched NEXT WOMEN, we saw an opportunity — there were all of these incredible female voices; they just needed to be heard,” said Leslie Fram, SVP of Music Strategy, CMT. “This year, our mission is to build the franchise and take it to the next level. As an industry we need to all celebrate and support the amazing female talent that represents our genre."