Priscilla Block is no stranger to the bright lights of an awards show—she even spent last year’s Academy of Country Music Awards on the job, co-hosting the red carpet in a show-stopping mirrorball jumpsuit.
But this is different. At the tenth annual iHeartRadio Music Awards on March 27, she’s up for Best New Country Artist, and she can hardly wrap her head around what that means.
“Country is like one big family, but if I see Lizzo on the red carpet I might collapse,” she says with a laugh, speaking with Nashville Lifestyles about the all-genre award show. “I think it means more to be recognized as one of the new people in country when it’s coming from something with all genres included. And I love that it’s happened when I feel really secure inbothwhoIamandwhoIamasanartist.I’ve been in Nashville nine years, and I look back like, ‘Thank God this didn’t happen sooner because I was still trying to figure out who I was.’”
She definitely seems to have that sorted out now. Building on the viral success of her breakout anthem, “Thick Thighs,” Block’s recognition arrives after a stellar couple of years and finds her preaching the gospel of self-acceptance.After“ThickThighs,”she followed up with the Platinum-certified “Just About Over You,” plus a debut album full of party-down empowerment for young women (and beyond). Now an expanded edition keeps the good times going. Released in February, Welcome to the Block Party Deluxe features all 12 songs from her original 2022 set, plus four new ones which show more of her unique personality.
“I really wanted to get an album out there for everybody, and we did that,” she says of the original album. “But these couple of new songs? I really feel like they complete the project.”
Those new songs include “Off the Deep End,” with Block swan-diving into a boozy Broadway bar crawl after a breakup, plus heart- wrenching confessions like “Me Pt. 2,” in which Block finds inner strength in her sadness. Added with her signature sass, they find the singer reaching toward self-understanding and healing in a way that stands out—especially in country music.
“To be honest, I spent a lot of my younger years just hating my body and myself,” she admits. “I always felt like I wasn’t good enough, and even coming into country music I heard multiple times, ‘If you’re really trying to make it, you need to lose 30 pounds.’ I just never really saw [body positivity] talked about in country, and I think that’s why I like people like Lizzo and Cardi B, all these women who show off their bodies and love it. I saw people like them and thought, ‘Maybe I could do that.’”
Block helped change the conversation with “ThickThighs,”aboisterousanthemdedicated to being comfortable in your own skin that went viral on TikTok, and turned her Nashville cover band gigs into weekly girl-power jams. Tired of writing the same old heartbreak songs, she had co-penned the tune with Emily Kroll and Sarah Jones on a lark, and immediately found her artistic voice.
“I finally felt like I said something different. This is me. I’m a curvy girl and I’m gonna sing about it,” she explains. “For so many years I tried to write songs like Taylor Swift and look like Carrie Underwood. But when ‘Thick Thighs’ was written, it was like, ‘Wow, this is authentically me. And this is who I want to be as an artist.’”
Fans have reacted the same way, often waiting hours after a show to tell Block about their own journey, and it’s led her to open up in other ways as well. Her latest release, “Me Pt. 2,” pairs emotional authenticity with that physical element, this time capturing a familiar kind of hurt. Written solo with just a guitar, a notebook, and a broken heart, Block says she penned the classic-feeling ballad after seeing her ex-boyfriend out with another girl—one who looked just like her.
“I was just writing my feelings,” she says. “When I looked at that girl it was almost like I was seeing myself and it was like, ‘What does she have that I don’t?’ It was such a sad night, and I went home and sat down on my carpet. I remember being like, ‘I hope you’re happy, you literally found me part two.’ I wrote that song out just the way it happened, and there’s something freeing about writing a song by yourself.”
That freedom can be felt in much of the newcomer’s work. It’s a driving force in her iHeartRadio Awards recognition and this summer it will lead Block to even more milestones. Along with her own headlining dates and festival appearances, Block will open a series of shows for country’s “let’s go girls” pioneer Shania Twain on her Queen of Me Tour in late June. And from there, she hopes to follow in those leopard-printed footsteps.
“Shania is one of those people I’ve looked up to forever, and if you want to talk about empowerment and owning who you are, she’s every type of icon,” Block says. “I hope people realize that they’re seen and heard. And I hope anybody who has dreams out there and listens to my music feels like they can literally go out there and be anything they want to be.”