Monday has arrived – final Monday of April! And since it is Monday, that means music!

For the month of April, our Spotlight Dancer is our friend and regular participant of Monday’s Music Moves Me, Driller’s Place! The theme selected for this week is “In honor of our middle grand daughter’s 21st birthday (April 16) build a play list of artists born in April.” Let’s get this April birthday party started, shall we?

Let’s start with an artist who celebrated his 22nd birthday on April 9th (sheesh he’s young!) who rose to prominence with this particular song that first achieved viral popularity in early 2019 before climbing music charts internationally and becoming diamond certified by November of that same year.

The song spent 19 weeks atop the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, becoming the longest-running number-one song since the chart debuted in 1958. Several remixes of the song were released, the most popular of which is this particular version.

Here’s Lil Nas X featuring Billy Ray Cyrus with “Old Town Road”:

Next up is an artist who just celebrated her 39th birthday this past Saturday (April 24th). She hosted this year’s socially distanced Billboard Music Awards, kicking things off with this particular song, joined by a cappella group Pentatonix and legendary drummer Sheila E. inside an empty Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

Here’s the inimitable Kelly Clarkson featuring Pentatonix and Sheila E. with “Higher Love”:

Next up, the female singer of this trio celebrated her 35th birthday on April 1st. This rollicking song was just released on March 12, 2021, and finds this artist out front, radiating strength and confidence as a woman. She’s happy to leave her heels and dress at home, sip tequila in her Levi’s, and dance on her own all night. She feels like a lady and is living her life on her own terms.

About writing the song, she was quoted as saying:

“As we were writing it, I was like, ‘It’s always been my dream to do a song that combines the things I love about Dolly Parton’s ‘9 to 5’ and Shania Twain’s ‘Man! I Feel Like a Woman!’ – two of the most strong, powerful female songs ever. So it was like, ‘How can we do our version of that?'”

The artist’s male bandmates can both be heard singing “I feel like a lady” in the backing vocals.

“It’s incredible that Charles and Dave, in all their masculinity, are willing to sing right alongside me in this song. I think that is another powerful statement. It’s super important for strong, great men to stand beside women and propel them forward.”

One of the male band members said:

“We were some of the biggest champions for ‘Like a Lady’ and we’re honored to stand alongside Hillary. We’ve had a front-row seat to her strength over the years and we love linking arms with her on this song.”

Here’s Lady A with “Like A Lady”:

Last, but certainly not least, last November marked the five-year anniversary of this April birthday boy’s catapult ride into the country spotlight. They took the 49th annual CMA Awards stage together in unexpected style, the grizzled country songwriter and his clean-cut pop sidekick stole the show that night in 2015, and it arguably launched the country artist (born on April 15, 1978) to his current, Platinum-selling, stadium rocking status.

The pair had become friends after the country artist reportedly performed at a private event for for the pop star, so the pop star did his pal a solid by showing up to perform a two-song medley at the awards ceremony. And it has gone down as a legendary moment.

Delivering the one two punch of their two songs, the performance pulled those in the audience out of their seats to dance, and had fans at home marveling at the country artist’s sound. The Kentucky native’s red-hot blowtorch of a singing voice was already beloved by those in the Nashville community, and just needed a little nudge into the mainstream to achieve iconic status. That’s what the pop star was able to help with, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Without further ado, here’s Chris Stapleton and Justin Timberlake with “Tennessee Whiskey / Drink You Away”:

That’s a wrap for this week – see you on the dance floor! Happy New Year – please stay safe and healthy!

Happy Happy (belated) Birthday to Driller’s middle Granddaughter!

Now on to the particulars of Monday’s Music Move’s Me:   Photobucket

I have the supreme honor and privilege of being a co-host with the inimitable Xmas Dolly and our musical cohort, the awesome Cathy from Curious as a CAThy, Callie of JAmerican Spice, and Alana of Ramblin’ with AM!

Want to join in the fun? It’s easy – just find a tune that rocks your boat, post it and link up – don’t forget to grab Xmas Dolly…er, um, I mean her button…over at her place here. Check out Xmas Dolly’s sidebar for the random themes we sport each week – and you can always ask for a specific theme of music you like, too. Check out the other music lovahs and let’s jam!

INTRODUCING OUR “SPOTLIGHT DANCER”:



3 Comments

  1. Thank you for joining the celebration this morning. I must say, I’m pretty sure the Justin Timberlake/Chris Stapleton duet will be the best thing I hear all day long. Timberlake is nothing short of a prodigy and Stapleton is pure country rock. Thanks for sharing this show stopping performance.

  2. Stacy,

    The Lil Nas X video is a lot of fun and whew, he’s a youngster just celebrating his 22nd birthday! Oh to be that young again, right? 🙂 Great set of songs honoring some country musicians today. Have a boogietastic week, my dear!

  3. I’m a little surprised none of us have ever posted Old Town Road (unless I managed to miss it) because it is such a fun video and catchy song. The Higher Love cover was well sung, and I enjoyed the other two songs, too. Especially after seeing Justin Timberlake’s name, I didn’t know what to expect (I must admit, I’m not a great fan of some of his music) but this was good. Well done!

Comments are closed.