It is certainly no secret that women have been historically under-represented in music and entertainment, and a large part of Variety’s Power of Women Nashville’s mission is to shine a light on the great work of the females who bring so much to the city’s art and commerce. In assembling this year’s honorees, it quickly became obvious that songwriters would need their own separate category — because what is Music City without songs?
Like our top four honorees — Kelsea Ballerini, Sheryl Crow, Mickey Guyton and Reba McEntire — and the 26 executives on our Impact list, we hope to spotlight different songwriters every time we bring this event to Nashville. Without further ado, meet our inaugural Power of Women Nashville Songwriter Honorees:
Jessi Alexander
(Warner Chappell Music)
Alexander came out of the gate strong with a terrific 2005 debut album, “Honeysuckle Sweet,” and then got dropped from her label the following year. Ironically, it’s been all uphill from there in her second act as a hit songwriter. In 2009, she landed her first top 10 hit as a co-writer with the Miley Cyrus smash “The Climb,” and by 2012, she had her first country No. 1 with Blake Shelton’s “Drink on It” — launching her on a path that led to her first nomination for the Grammys’ prestigious songwriter of the year, non-classical award, for hits by Luke Combs, Cody Johnson, Dustin Lynch and Megan Moroney. It’s all added up to a happy ending: “I usually like to be the girl in the background,” she says.
Jessie Jo Dillon
(Big Machine Music)
One of the most successful tunesmiths of this era, Dillon has received six Grammy nominations, including one for the 2025 songwriter of the year, non-classical, for her work with Brandy Clark, Megan Moroney, Jelly Roll, Catie Offerman, Dan + Shay, Old Dominion, Hardy and Lori McKenna (and you can add Post Malone, Morgan Wallen, Kelsea Ballerini, Megan Maroney and loads more to the list of her recent work). The daughter of Nashville royalty — Dean Dillon, who wrote hits for George Strait, Kenny Chesney and Toby Keith — her first song was not only a hit but a Grammy nominee: Strait’s “The Breath You Take,” co-written with her dad.
ALYSSE GAFKJEN
Natalie Hemby
(Jody Williams Songs)
On a single Friday in March, Hemby had songs she co-wrote come out on albums by Mumford & Sons, Jessica Simpson and Lola Kirke. “That’s very, very broad, which honestly is very me,” she says. “When I was in high school, I was pretty much friends with everybody, and I floated in between groups, and I feel like I still do that with music. I have a mainstream country single out now with Parker McCollum, and this year I’ve been writing with Jon Batiste. I’m like a kid in a candy store: I want the chocolate, the jelly beans, the Twizzlers — everything.” She’s had eight No. 1 country singles, including hot streaks with Miranda Lambert and Little Big Town. “But my most popular songs are not always the smash ones.
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Ink
(Big Loud)
A multi-hyphenate and multi-genre artist-songwriter-producer, Atia “Ink” Boggs has worked with Beyonce (“Cowboy Carter” and “Renaissance”), Kendrick Lamar, Jennifer Lopez, Leon Bridges and more, but it may not be long before the Georgia-raised honoree breaks out as a solo artist, inking (sorry) an artist deal with Big Loud earlier this week. “Country music, to me, is more of a feeling,” she says. “Sometimes it feels like a big-ass hug at the family reunion. It’s all about the storytelling and for me it’s not time to fit in a box — it’s time to break the mold.”
Steph Jones
(Reservoir Media)
Looking at the upper echelons of pop charts of the past 24 months, there’s almost a larger percentage of artists who have worked with veteran songwriter Jones than those who haven’t: a 10-year collaboration with Sabrina Carpenter (“Espresso”), along with Jelly Roll, Teddy Swims, Kelsea Ballerini, Selena Gomez, Myles Smith, Pharrell, Tucker Wetmore, Renee Rapp, Jade — we could go on. The Missouri native came up in the church and, after stints in Austin and Los Angeles, recently returned to the place where she got her start: Music City.
