Loretta Lynn’s Granddaughter gets a Golden Ticket on American Idol

By Lilly Adkins

BSN Associate Editor

REGIONAL —Singing an original song, Emmy Russell, 24, granddaughter of the late great country music icon, Loretta Lynn, earned herself a golden ticket to Hollywood on American Idol Sunday night.

Russell timidly explained that she wanted to own her voice.

“That’s why I wanna challenge myself and come out here,” Russell said.

The original song, “Skinny,” was about her experience with an eating disorder. She played the piano as she sang the ballad, showing that her musical style was from different from her grandmother.

Russell told the judges that she loved writing and that she doesn’t sing as much anymore but she grew up singing with her grandmother, which is how they found out that her grandmother was none other than the “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” Loretta Lynn.

“She’s one of the biggest country music singers of all time, but to me she’s just my grandma, and growing up on the bus and that was very normal to me,” Russell said.