On Monday it was announced that Enniskillen will host a two day country music festival this August with Nathan Carter and Miranda Lambert on the bill as headlining acts.
33 year old Miranda Lambert is among the most well known country music artists of her generation and is set to stun country fans young and old alike with a show-stopping performance.
She is best known as a solo artist, but is also a member of the ‘Pistol Annies’ alongside Ashley Monroe and Angaleena Presley. Lambert has also been honoured by the Grammy Awards, the Academy of Country Music Awards and the Country Music Association Awards.
Her debut album, released in 2005 entitled ‘Kerosene’ was certified platinum in the US and included chart topping singles such as ‘Bring Me Down,’ ‘Me and Charlie Talking’ and ‘New Strings.’
Many more popular singles and albums have came from Lambert since then, including ‘Famous In A Small Town,’ ‘Gunpowder and Lead’ and ‘Automatic’ to name but a few.
Lambert also found love in country music; as in 2011 she wed former country star Blake Shelton. The talented pair split in 2015 however.
It all started for Lambert on a TV contestant show. Her family helped to finance her first recording in 2001, but it wasn’t until Lambert two years later became a contestant on Nashville Star that her career kicked off. She finished as second runner-up, but landed a contract with Sony Music.
She is the four-time reigning CMA and ACM Female Vocalist of the Year, a Grammy winner with three award winning Albums of the Year under her belt, and a woman whose personal foundation, MuttNation, has raised millions of dollars for pet shelters across the country.
Take in all that, and you suddenly realise that someone who is known as “the little blonde spitfire from Lindale, Texas” has grown up right before our eyes.
Speaking in a recent interview, the singer/songwriter commented on the difficulties women face in what can be arguably called a male-dominated industry.
“I feel like for a minute girls in Country were really rockin’, and then the line [of guys] kept growing and we started to get shoved off the edge,” she says, the fire in her eyes starting to burn.
“And it’s like, ‘Hold on now! Scoot on over!’
“If we want to get back to the middle, we’re gonna have to push some of them off the edge.”
So with our local country star Nathan Carter and the American star both headlining the festival, will we see Lambert metaphorically push Carter off the stage?
 Only one way to find out!