Elizabeth Nichols could have been an author, an accountant or a lawyer.
Instead, she chose artist. And now she has a breakthrough song with the quirky kiss-off “I Got a New One.” The attitude-driven song about kicking toxic, possessive lovers to the curb got a boost recently when Kelly Clarkson gave it the “Kellyoke treatment” on an episode of her popular talk show The Kelly Clarkson Show.
Nichols independently released “I Got a New One” in December. Soon after, The Kelly Clarkson Show’s team reached out, asking for permission to use the song.
“I signed everything, did the legal stuff and then I didn’t hear anything,” Nichols recalls to Billboard. “I thought maybe it was going to play in the credits or something. But then I woke up and Kelly was singing it on TV. I freaked out, alone in my house. I ordered Dickey’s Barbeque to celebrate — nothing like barbeque to celebrate.”
After her rendition, Clarkson expressed her happiness at being able to shout out a “fellow Texan” and heaped praise on Nichols’ song (“I love it so much. It’s so funny”). “I heard what she said on TV and it was so kind. It was a very huge honor,” Nichols adds.
Nichols is No. 15 on Billboard’s Emerging Artists chart, and has already opened shows for Wyatt Flores. Her seven-song debut EP Tough Love comes out on June 20 on Pulse Records.
“I’m just counting down the days until [Tough Love] releases,” she says. “It comes out the day before my birthday, and I’m celebrating with a crawfish boil. That was my one request.”
The set, produced in part by Nichols, Travis Heidleman, Steve Rusch and Jackson Foote, includes the flirtatiious, quirky “Mama,” as well as another sterling track, “Somebody Cooked Here” — which Nichols wrote with Mags Duval, co-writer of Alex Warren’s current two-week Billboard Hot 100 chart-leader “Ordinary.”
Texas native Nichols, who grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, doesn’t see songwriting as all that different from her pursuits as an author. “I kind of look at songs as mini-books or stories,” she says. “There needs to be a cliffhanger or a plot twist.”
Nichols knows something about a plot twist; her own career journey is filled with them. A pastor’s daughter, Nichols grew up singing in church and started writing songs at age nine. But she put songwriting aside to focus on school and long-form writing, studying writing at Oral Roberts University in Oklahoma. She then earned her master’s degree in accounting in Melbourne, Australia. But even then, she was being pulled toward music. She began writing songs again, sometimes crafting tunes about various classmates, and putting out snippets of those songs under an alias account on TikTok.
Her homespun songs began connecting with not only fans, but with other artists. Her first-ever co-writing session, prior to moving to Nashville, was with “Indigo” hitmaker Sam Barber. She landed a co-write on his 2024 album Restless Mind.
“I got a DM from Sam’s manager, and they were like, ‘He likes your music. Do you do co-writes?’” Nichols recalls. “I had to Google what a co-write was — I had no clue. But I flew to Montana and met Sam and we wrote for a few days. Sam’s so talented and amazing. The first song we wrote was ‘Morning Time,’ which ended up on his album. Right after that, I went and got a guitar and was like, ‘This is my career now.’”
She moved to Nashville in August 2024 and enrolled in law school at Belmont University, but kept writing songs and setting up co-writing sessions. The first week she arrived in Nashville, a writing session with writer-producer Jackson Foote brought about “I Got a New One.”
“I’m kind of ornery,” she says with a grin, as she talks of co-writing the defiant song. “I had the story arc thought out. I was like, ‘Now, let’s just make the music and flesh it out.’”
By January, Nichols dropped out of law school to focus fully on music. In early June she experienced her first CMA Fest in Nashville. When her first official CMA Fest debut was rained out early on during the four-day festival, Nichols orchestrated her own plot twist, performing on the street in downtown Nashville for fans that same day.
“I got to meet everyone, shake their hands, take pictures with them. It was cool,” she recalls. “I just started playing shows a month ago, but I was recognizing people from my comments section, like, ‘Oh, you comment on my videos!’ My screen time is scary. I’m a little chronic.”
In addition to releasing her EP, she’ll be opening shows for Little Big Town and Russell Dickerson throughout the summer. Billboard caught up with Nichols, Billboard’s Country Rookie of the Month for June, at CMA Fest to discuss “I Got A New One,” the Kelly Clarkson performance, her EP and more. See our conversation below.
This EP also includes “Somebody Cooked Here,” a song you wrote with Mags, about a woman who visits her lover and realizes he was previously in a pretty serious relationship. What do you remember about writing that?
We wrote that the first month I came to town, it was the first time we met. It took us about 20 minutes to write the whole song. It was immediately like sparks flying. Songwriting is like a first date. Sometimes it takes you time to click with someone and sometimes you go in there and it’s instant. I had the idea for “Somebody Cooked Here,” and we were like, “Let’s make it literal.” That’s one of my favorites, and we’ve written so many songs that are soon to come out.
You signed with Pulse Records in March. How did you connect with them?
I’m such a fan of everybody on my team, and they make my job so easy. When “I Got a New One” first came out, I released it independently and then talked to so many people. It was the hardest decision. It was like giving me 20 great options and asking what cut of steak I want — filet mignon, rib eye? Pulse and I just connected. I saw the projects they were working on and they were just killing it.
You just wrapped a tour opening for Wyatt Flores. What was that like?
When I had just 300 followers on TikTok, he was one of the first people who followed me; he was the first person of anyone in the music industry. Wyatt Flores is the best A&R. He was so [supportive] early on and so, it’s a full-circle moment for me to be opening for him. And he’s such a sweetheart and so kind.
What are your favorite cover songs to work into your set?
I love Toby Keith. “How Do You Like Me Now?!” is such a good, fun kiss-off song. We throw a few ones like that in there. And his music is funny — I like funny singers.
What kind of music did you grow up listening to?
I grew up in church, so I listened to a lot of CeCe Winans, Marvin Sapp.
Is a gospel project in your future?
I would love to one day, because the sky’s the limit. You never know. My dad would be happy about that.
What did he think when you told him you were going to pursue music?
I was in law school here in Nashville, and I dropped out in January. I called my dad and told him, and he was like, ‘Oh, god.’ But he’s the most supportive. He’s been at every show. He has this calendar printed out with every date of every show I have for the next year and he’s already booked flights for every single one. He’s happy. He just wanted a free lawyer. But he’s fine. He gets free concerts.
What is a song you wish you had written?
Any Kacey Musgraves song. “Tin Man” from Miranda Lambert. It makes me angry when I listen to it, sometimes because I’m like, “I wish I could have written this.” It’s so beautiful.
Who would you love to collaborate with?
I’m a big Zach Top fan. Who isn’t? He’s killing it, and he does the cool, old-school thing.
What podcast or book are you into right now?
I’m reading The Hunger Games, which has been fun. I finished the first book before CMA Fest. I have the rest of the books and I made my roommate hide them so I wouldn’t read them during the Fest. So I’m excited for Monday after the festival because I can read [the series’ second book] Catching Fire.
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