The record-breaking, genre-melting, career-redefining evolution of Miranda Lambert

In the two decades since her breakthrough single, the revenge-fueled "Kerosene," Lambert has achieved just about every kind of success an artist can in the country music industry.With her new album, Crisco, she says her sights are set on new levels of stardom.

Robert Ascroft hide caption Miranda Lambert came out of the gate with a me-against-the-world attitude.In the video for her 2005 single "Kerosene" that established her early image, the scrappy, young Texas singer-songwriter wore a steely-eyed glare and a fitted "Mama Tried" tank top, in tribute to Merle Haggard, as she played the role of a woman exacting revenge on her cheating lover by torching his property.In a way, she was also sending a message to the country music industry: No one should expect cheerful compliance from her.

"Forget your high society," she sang caustically, "I'm soakin' it in kerosene."Last year, Lambert marked the 20th anniversary of "Kerosene" on the Academy of Country Music Awards show by reframing her song as a duet with Ella Langley, an ascendant superstar a decade-and-a-half her junior.Sporting a replica of Lambert's tank top for the occasion, Langley swapped lines with her predecessor.

The two of them sang the hook in unison, leaning into each other and playfully bumping hips.And all the while Lambert, no longer registering as such an intractable individualist, couldn't stop grinning.She's had even more to smile about in 2026, not least because she had a hand in helping Langley create the biggest song of the year in any genre.

"Choosin' Texas" is a throwback ballad that nods to early '80s Urban Cowboy sleekness, and Lambert co-wrote and co-produced it.The massive country hit has also broken pop-chart records, to Lambert's delight.In the well-appointed basement sitting room of her managers' offices just off Music Row, she took a moment to reflect on the boun...