Miranda Lambert Joins Republic, With Big Loud Set as a Partner Label to Manage Country Promotion

Country music sensation Miranda Lambert has signed a record deal with Republic Records. Her eleventh solo album will be released later this year, and her first song under the new deal, “Wranglers,” is scheduled to release on May 3.

 

She is contracted to the pop label for future albums, but as part of the arrangement, she will also be managing marketing and promotion for country radio via a relationship with Big Loud, another label within the Universal Music banner.

Republic, the company that signed Taylor Swift and Drake among other pop talents, hasn’t signed many country musicians directly; Shania Twain and Lily Rose are the others. However, this does not negate the label’s significant presence in the country market, as seen by its collaboration with Big Loud to jointly promote Morgan Wallen, the biggest act in the genre for the last several years.

“Wranglers feels like it could be on the same record as ‘Gunpowder & Lead,’ [her first top 10 country hit, in 2008]; it has that same fury,” Lambert said in a statement. “Music is and always will be the thing that drives me, but having a new home has given me a hunger I didn’t realize I still had inside me.” I’m eager to release this new music and label on the world stage. I get fired up by Monte Lipman and his group. Everyone I spoke with—Monte, Avery Lipman, the Republic team, Seth, and the Big Loud people who are leaning in—understood my goals and vision for this next phase of my career. That kind of alignment is liberating; it gives you permission to pursue it wholeheartedly. Finding the sweet spot for myself and everyone who likes me has been motivated by my signing with Republic. I am eager for everyone to listen to “Wranglers” and the whole album.

With her early Tuesday statement, Lambert resolved a mystery that had been raised when she first announced to the public 13 months ago that she was quitting Sony Nashville, the label that had been her home for the whole 20 years of her career, in order to become a free agent. “I wouldn’t be true to myself if I wasn’t constantly looking for the next challenge and a new way to stretch my creativity,” Lambert said in a statement released in March 2023. In light of this, I’ve made the decision to bid my Sony family farewell. I’m eager to see what the next journey has in store.

When Lambert released a 12-second quick-cut video montage of her previous songs on Monday, coupled with a phone number to text for updates, along with the phrase, “Warning: Hell hath no furty like a woman scorned,” fans knew something was up, and they also had a sense of where she was heading. The number directed them to a sign-up website with the obvious Universal Music Group branding, but there was still plenty of leeway as to which UMG imprint would receive Lambert (or imprints, given that she has two dividing the workload).

Republic’s EVP and CFO Joe Schmidt, founder and vice chairman Avery Lipman, president and COO Jim Roppo, Lambert, founder and chairman Monte Lipman, and CEO of Big Loud, Seth England, are all seen in the signing announcement picture above.

On Saturday night, Lambert will play the main act at the Stagecoach Festival in the California desert. The performance will be aired live on Prime Video. It is unclear whether the singer would debut new songs at the festival concert for the live and streaming audiences or save it for the official release date, as “Wranglers” isn’t scheduled to be published until the following Friday.

“Palomino,” Lambert’s last album with Sony, was released this month, two years ago. She scored No. 1 singles with “The House That Built Me,” “Heart Like Mine,” “Over You,” “Somethin’ Bad,” and “Bluebird” when she was employed with that business. Additionally, she has been a featured artist on No. 1 country hits by Elle King, Jason Aldean, and Keith Urban. When she won entertainer of the year at the 2022 ACM Awards, she earned one of the greatest accolades in the genre.

As Lambert “puts the finishing touches on her fantastic new body of work,” Republic founder-chairman Monte Lipman praised the singer’s strength as “both a consummate storyteller and legendary performer” in a statement, while Jim Roppo, the label’s president and COO, raved about being “at the beginning of a very special moment.” We feel privileged to accompany her on this adventure.

It was already known that Big Loud Records will play some kind of role in Lambert’s career. She announced a relationship with Big Loud last autumn to start a new label, Big Loud Texas, under which she and her regular collaborator Jon Randall would actively sign and cultivate artists.

Lambert has scheduled solo shows and other country festivals until the end of September, after Stagecoach. She concluded her 18-month “Velvet Rodeo” tenure at Planet Hollywood earlier this month, including 48 performances.

In July of last year, Lambert released one indie song on her own Vanner label, a duet with Leon Bridges called “If You Were Mine,” in between leaving Sony and revealing her Republic agreement. “Y’All Eat Yet?: Welcome to the Pretty B*tchin Kitchen,” her cookbook and lifestyle book, was also published. It debuted at No. 3 on the New York Times bestseller list.