Girl Who Didn't Care

Album: single release (2021)
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Songfacts®:

  • In this guitar-driven country tune, Tenille Townes longs to recapture the innocence of her childhood when she was a carefree dreamer who didn't care what anyone thought.

    "Something happens to all of us at some point in our lives when we start noticing the cracks. We start realizing that we care about what somebody else thinks. That we want to belong and be accepted, and we're scared we won't be," the Canadian country singer told The Ty Bentli Show on Apple Music. "We start measuring our worth against everything else around us. Childhood innocence doesn't just wait around. Once it's gone, it's gone. But the wonder? I think that's always a part of us if we want to remember it."
  • Townes was inspired by walking through her neighborhood and hearing children at play and seeing their sidewalk chalk art. She explained: "And it's like, 'Man, to just have that wonder and the courage that they have to just see the world as something awesome. And to really not care what anyone thinks or not care about how far away a crazy dream is. That's something that I want more of in my life now.'"
  • Nashville-based Townes wrote this during the COVID-19 pandemic on a Zoom session with a pair of Los Angeles creatives: Steph Jones (Pink, Selena Gomez) and David Pramik (Bebe Rexha, I Prevail). The trio won the award for Songwriters of the Year for "Girl Who Didn't Care" at the 2022 Canadian Country Music Association Awards, where the song also won Single of the Year.
  • This was Townes' first new single since the release of her major-label debut album, The Lemonade Stand. It peaked at #5 on the Canadian Country chart, making it her fifth Top 10 single on the tally. It also peaked at #86 on the Canadian Hot 100.
  • The music video was directed by Mason Dixon, who also helmed the clip for her hit song "Jersey On The Wall (I'm Just Asking)." It spotlights three real-life women who grew up to fulfill their childhood dreams: firefighter Shannon Wells, space enthusiast Alyssa Carson, and college soccer star Sarah Fuller.

    "It was incredible to see the idea for this video come to life with all of them in it. I believe it's a really powerful thing to see real people living out real stories of chasing their dreams," said Townes. "It's what makes a dream seem like a possible thing. I hope when people watch this, they feel inspired to chase their own dreams."

    The clip was nominated for Video of the Year at the 2022 Canadian Country Music Association Awards but lost to Nice Horse's "High School."
  • Townes really was a fearless dreamer as a kid. In a 2023 Songfacts interview, she told the story of how she asked to sing onstage with Shania Twain and got her wish:

    "I was one of those crazy kids at 9 years old who got pulled up on stage with my hero, Shania, in Edmonton. I had a costume that looked like her Miami concert DVD that I had watched a million times. I had a sign that I made that asked if I could sing with her. She reached out her hand and pulled me up on stage. That was it. I was like, 'This is what I want to do for the rest of my life.'"

    The pair sang Twain's Up! track "What A Way To Wanna Be!" together before Townes was allowed to sing the chorus to "Honey, I'm Home" on her own for the screaming crowd.

    But the moment was just the beginning of her association with the singer. In 2023, Townes joined Twain's international Queen Of Me Tour as an opening act.

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