Jenna DeVries Tells the
Haunting Story of
Escaping Her Cult
Upbringing in New Project, "RIP"
(Nashville, TN): Jenna DeVries releases haunting
new single "RIP" to coincide
with Halloween .
Country Routes News shines the spotlight taking a
look back at the music Jenna has released over the past year
When discussing her single, Jenna said “I wrote the chorus to this song shortly after I came out. When I chose to be my authentic self, I lost basically my entire community - my family, friends, and church…. It came to me after one particularly painful moment - over Christmas, my best friend from high school called me and told me she never wanted to see me again because I was ‘dangerous to have around her children’ because I would show them a “homosexual lifestyle.’ Best friends for years - I was literally in her wedding, and she cut me off like it was nothing. This song came from a place of anger - I felt like I needed to write a song that allowed me to be angry and mourn the relationships that I no longer had. I decided I would rather be alone forever than live surrounded by people who only want the version of me that suits them. High-control religious environments make people hate what they fear and fear what they don’t understand. If you are a survivor of a cult or HCR environment - this song is your anthem. Always choose yourself - the rest of your life, the best of your life will follow.”
ICYMI:
Southern Pop Rock / Love child of Gaga and Stevie Nicks
Credit Photography by Stephen Dillon
Her last pop single “Back to Me” (released Oct 6, 2023; 10.2K Spotify streams to date), co-written with Gregory Allen Manuel II, was featured on Spotify’s New Music Friday Country and Fresh Finds Country, Apple Music’s Best New Country Songs and New in Country, and Audiomack’s New in Pop playlist.
July 21st, 2023 (Nashville, TN): Jenna DeVries told a thrilling and captivating
love story in her single and video for "Rhinestone
Cowgirl." The single, released on July 20, 2023, is available on all digital
streaming platforms.
Jenna shared, “Rhinestone
Cowgirl is the ultimate sapphic love story - it tells the tale of the kind of
love that feels dangerous. It was the perfect opportunity to create this small
fantasy world that allowed me to play with the idea of gender expression. Love
is love - no matter how people identify or look, I believe there is a unique and
beautiful love story out there for all of us.”
Jenna sets the scene
for her dramatic storytelling, beginning with a light synth sound, a quick
cutout, followed by a fast beat. Simple instrumentation allows attention to go
to Jenna’s intense vocals. Jenna carefully describes a mysterious woman with the
lyrics, “You can see her there, long dark hair/With her cigarette eyes burning
deep in your mind.” She explains that this woman is dangerous, but she must let
her shine. The intensity builds to the chorus as Jenna reveals who this woman
is, belting, “My rhinestone cowgirl.” The mysterious woman is
Jenna herself, a divinely feminine powerhouse.
Watch the video:
The
music video brings the story to life. In low lighting, the verses are sung by a
country-western, masculine Jenna. She narrates the story, drawing listeners in
with a classic red-curtained stage in the background. Leading into the first
chorus, the camera shot flashes a black screen followed by a quick zoom out to
reveal the magnificent star of the show, the rhinestone cowgirl. With bright
lights, Jenna is centerstage in an extravagant, beautifully bejeweled body
suit, complete with a pink cowgirl hat, and platinum hair. Her blue eyes shine
through her fierce cat eye, putting viewers in a trance. She is feminine, sexy,
and powerful.
Jenna
proves you don’t have to be one thing, but you can be a multifaceted, complex
enigma. Authentic and unique. Jenna is a major fan of DIY and it is another one
of her talents, “The video also took my DIY skills to the max - the saddle
you see in the video was a labor of love that took almost two weeks to transform. You could find me
bedazzling a saddle in my living room until all hours of the night - but it
really turned out exactly how I imagined it!”
On 2 June 2023 the country artist and activist
dropped her female empowerment anthem rock single Self Made Man, a co-write with Jennifer Miller and Peter Whitley Eddins. With songs
in the country, pop, and rock categories, Jenna proved once again that her
fiery voice and powerful songwriting could mend genres seamlessly. Jenna shared
“Self Made Man” is an anthem for any woman who has built a man’s empire
without any acknowledgment. I don’t want to watch one more woman be forced to
sacrifice her life for someone else’s convenience. The song 'Self Made Man' was
inspired by the level of anger I feel about men in power trying to control
women’s bodies. Every human being on this planet is here because a woman
carried them into it. This song is an anthem and a reminder that in our broken,
patriarchal society, there really are no 'self-made' men.
Jenna DeVries broke free from conformity and embraced her out loud and proud self in “riveting” country single and video for "Daddy's Little Heart Attack" (co-written with Gregory Allen; produced by Jen Miller and Peter Eddins). You can listen to the single previously released on March 16, 2023 here or check out the Live video on YouTube
The song is about escaping a life and town that
was too small.
She shared “Growing up, my parents sheltered us from
everything. I was homeschooled almost my whole life and never got to listen to
“secular” music. The song really tells the true story of escaping that life to
step into a new “rebellious” adventure - and loving every second of it, even
when it was hard to leave everything I had ever known. I hope this song helps
the black sheep or ‘rebellious’ child feel less alone.” - Jenna DeVries
FOR THE HOLIDAYS: Riding the success of her
previous (Oct 28, 2023) rowdy single, “Drunk Girls,”
alongside Harper Grae, Jenna took
a more vulnerable approach on her country holiday release “December” which
dropped Dec 10, 2022.
At the outset of “December” soft sounds of piano commence. The
listeners are transported into Jenna DeVries’ description of love, loss, and
longing for the life she knew before. As the season begins, she remembers that
the holidays are just another reminder that those moments are no longer.
Jenna DeVries discloses her feelings of grief through her powerful
vocals and heart-wrenching lyricism. She belts, “No, we'll never go back to
our Decembers with the twinkling lights/when the world outside never felt so
bright/I remember how you made me feel like the magic’s real/Like time stood
still.”
Making each song her own Jenna DeVries displays a great passion for each song in her discography. Her voice flawlessly projects each emotion intended to convey. Whether it be a fun, country pop anthem like “Drunk Girls” or the heartbreaking ballad, like “December” Jenna DeVries.
“I wrote December the first Christmas I spent without my family. I needed a way to really grieve all the ways my life had changed - for better and for worse. It is a strange feeling to go through the holidays celebrating when your heart is broken. I know so many other members of the LGBTQIA+ community experience that feeling. Or anyone who is suffering a loss over the holidays” - Jenna DeVries
October 7, 2022 (Nashville, TN): DeVries released country single "Memphis" describing feelings of lost love that we all know so well. The track is full of powerful yet singable lyrics you'll want to belt the whole drive along I-40. The line, “can't walk these city streets alone at night, see your face in every stranger” perfectly describes the inability to face your regret, because it just hurts too much.
“Jenna DeVries embraces vulnerability in her
new single, Memphis.” — COWGIRL Magazine
“DeVries pulls aspects from her classic
country roots in lyricism; by focusing on the theme of the loss of love and
loneliness.” - She Wolf Radio
When Jenna Renae decided to move into Pop
Music, she also
decided to rebrand herself. Thus, DeVries was born. The singer-songwriter
explained why she changed genres. DeVries said, “For me, songwriting is a way
for me to say what I am thinking and feeling. I am aggressively opinionated.
The inherent honesty in pop music doesn’t limit what I can say. If I want to
write a song about faking an orgasm, I can do it. So much is taboo in country
music, unlike pop music”. Read More “Jenna DeVries is bold, energetic, authentic, and fantastic.” —Undiscovered Nashville
ABOUT
Jenna
DeVries,
named as one of NSAI's Songwriters To Watch, was among the elite
handful of artists to make it to American Idol's Top 24 on the
farewell season. Jenna and LGBTQ+ country star Adam Mac released
their duet “Chapel,” which was voted #1 on CMT’s Music Television
channel 2 weeks in a row, alongside Keith Urban and
other A-list country artists, and premiered on The
Boot. Her single, "Daddy's Little Heart
Attack," was featured on CMT and was added to the Next Women of Country playlist. The
same release was seen on Wide Open Country's "6 New Country Songs You Need to Hear
This Week" list. Adam Mac and Jenna's version of
"Unholy" was also featured with Wide Open Country on the
same list.
She's
also racked up over 1 million streams on Spotify alone from songs such as "Drunk
Girls" ft. Harper Grae, which was
supported by People Country, CMT & Viacom. “Self-Made
Man,” her female empowerment anthem, was uplifted by CMT, Bridge Magazine,
and many more. Her Pride release “Rhinestone Cowgirl” was
championed by CMT, Holler, and the likes, and was exclusively
premiered by Earmilk, which you can see and read here.
Jenna
recently launched The Outlaw Collective, a showcase series held
monthly to spotlight LGBTQ+ artists in the country and alternative genres -
seen on Today
in Nashville, at The Electric Jane, and The Analog.
20,688
monthly Spotify Listeners.
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