It’s Wednesday 22nd February, and country-pop singer-songwriter Georgia Webster has just touched down in the UK – her first time across the pond. Embarking on a once-in-a-lifetime tour with Kelsea Ballerini, Georgia takes to the stage at Manchester’s O2 Ritz. She seems a little nervous at first, perhaps slightly anxious about how an international crowd will react to her music, but as soon as she launches into her TikTok hit Tell Your Mom, her demeanour changes. She’s sassy, confident and full of energy, with a crowd that’s equally as hyped when they realise where they’ve heard the name Georgia Webster before.
Georgia’s journey starts on a small street surrounded by woodland in Western Massachusetts – her childhood home. “We didn’t have many neighbours,” she explains. “So, I spent a lot of time in my imagination as a kid. I started writing songs at a young age, like at 10 years old.” Influenced by the pioneering songwriting styles of Grammy award-winner Kacey Musgraves and acoustic singer-songwriter Chris Pureka, Georgia’s lyrics are unmistakably autobiographical. Sugar-coating isn’t in her remit – a ballsy move when you’ve got high school gossip and social media comments to contend with.
What came next would change Georgia’s life and shape her career. Whilst the world was posting dance videos to a new app called TikTok, Georgia was working out how to use the platform differently. “I wrote Tell Your Mom at the end of my junior year of high school,” she recalls. “It’s about a guy I dated at the beginning of high school. I missed him at the time and his mom had randomly reached out to ask how I was. It made me think about how bad it sucks breaking up with somebody when you love their family, and their family loves you.”
After some trepidation, Georgia sat on the bathroom floor of her parent’s home in a pair of denim dungarees and filmed herself playing the song. “I actually don’t tell this story a lot, but the night I put Tell Your Mom on TikTok, I was seriously considering doing something different with my life,” she says. “I didn’t think a career in music would be realistic for me. I prayed for the first time in a while, and just asked God to give me a sign and I woke up to that TikTok going off.”
In its first few days online, Tell Your Mom amassed over 2.7 million views, prompting her move to Nashville. “My dad works in excavation and was trading one of his trucks for another one down south, so we ended up taking my car and his giant eight-wheel dump truck to Nashville with all my stuff in the back of the dump truck!”
Closing the final chapter of her life at home, Georgia released her debut EP, First Goodbye, before she hit the road – a collection of songs that act as the prologue to her story. “I wrote all the songs on First Goodbye alone in my room during high school. I felt like I had to get them out into the world before I moved to Nashville,” she says. “I’m really glad I did. It signifies leaving my high school boyfriend, who I was so in love with, leaving my hometown where I spent my whole life, leaving my friends who were all going off to college, and leaving the half of myself who thought I’d be going off with them.” It was the end of an era that prompted the beginning of a new adventure.
Navigating Music City came naturally to Georgia. Wise beyond her years, she was ready for the next step, and in September 2022, she released her second EP, Chapter 1: Things We’re Not Saying. Musically, it showcases her transition from a small-town teenager into a professional songwriter and brought along collaborations with some of Nashville’s most sought-after writers, including Josh Kerr (KING & COUNTRY, Maddie & Tae), who also produced the project. “Working with Josh has been so incredible,” Georgia says. “He also asked me if I wanted to be listed as a co-producer on the EP because of how much input I was giving on the production, and that was so insanely cool because I never really saw myself in that way.”
Moving to Nashville meant entering a long-distance relationship with her then-boyfriend, which inspired the stand-out song I Hate Phone Calls (Long Distance Sucks). “This was the first song that I wrote with Josh [Kerr], and it was during the peak of my long-distance relationship,” she recalls. “I was so over it, and it was the first time I had ever tried long-distance, which, by the way, is the worst thing ever for someone whose love language is physical touch!”
Reviving the original feel-good sound that kick-started her career, Georgia wrote the track X’s about the stage in a breakup where going out and having fun is all you want to do. There was just one problem – the legal drinking age in America is 21, and if you’re underage, you get marked with a tell-tale X on the back of your hand. “I was so sick of all my friends being able to go out since most of them were older than me at the time. I had just gotten out of a two-year relationship, so I was just like, ‘c’mon, I just want to go out for one night!’”
Since its release, X’s has gained over 3 million streams and garnered the attention of country superstar Kelsea Ballerini. “Kelsea found me on TikTok and invited me to go on tour with her,” Georgia remembers. “She’s literally blowing up right now [Kelsea released her deeply personal EP, Rolling up the Welcome Mat, back in February], so she’s pretty busy with interviews, but she still goes out of her way to see me and talk to me and make sure I’m doing okay.”
Over the course of four shows across the UK tour, Georgia managed to connect with a brand-new audience through her refreshingly relatable lyrics and her contagiously bright energy. “The UK was the best week of my life, and I’ll stand by that for a long time,” she says. “I loved the crowds. They were so attentive, respectful and kind. I just loved the overall vibe there, like I love reading, and I love the cute coffee shops. The UK seems to appreciate the little things way more.”
As a book lover, Georgia couldn’t visit the UK without paying homage to one of her favourite fictional characters. “I went to platform 9¾, the Harry Potter store, and I also went to John Ryland Institute, which looks exactly like Hogwarts inside. It was so dope! My inner child was screaming.” Next on the list is the Harry Potter Studios, and she won’t have to wait long – she’s coming back to the UK in the summer for the Long Road Festival in Leicestershire.
The final stop on Georgia’s itinerary was Sixty Ink Tattoo Studio in London. “I love angel numbers, and I was seeing 222 a lot before the tour,” she explains. “My flight to the UK was flight 222, and my first show was on 2/22 – the Manchester show! That show was also at The O2, which was 0.2 miles from our hotel.” At this point, she was on the cusp of getting inked, but it was a chance encounter that sealed the deal. “On the last night of the tour, I ended up meeting a guy… and he literally, no joke, pulled up his sleeve to show me his zodiac tattoo, and he had a 222 tattoo right above it on his arm. We basically have matching tattoos now, but the 222 was way too crazy of a story, and I had to get it.”
They say country music is three chords and the truth, and honesty is something Georgia Webster does impeccably well. She says what’s in her heart with an unwavering boldness reminiscent of artists such as Lainey Wilson and Maren Morris. From a high school student recording songs in her bathroom to international tours with world-famous stars, Georgia Webster is standing on the edge of what promises to be an iconic year in her musical evolution. “If I could go back to that night when I put Tell Your Mom on TikTok, I’d tell myself that it doesn’t matter how many people see your music or what kinds of crazy things happen, all that matters is that you’re doing this for yourself and that you’re loving what you make.”
Georgia’s EP, Chapter 1: Things We’re Not Saying, is out now.
