What is Mickey Guyton's net worth? Singer who faced 'American Idol' elimination creates history at ACM Awards
While the pandemic has been a tough year for most people, artist Mickey Guyton has been making strides. After her powerful performance at the 2021 Grammy Awards, the artist is now all set to host the Academy of Country Music Awards with Keith Urban.
Turns out, she is also the first Black solo female artist to host the ACM Awards. But for Guyton, breaking through genres and changing the norms seem to be something that comes naturally to her, although it's not without the artist's relentless passion for her craft.
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Guyton was always passionate about music
Born to parents Phyllis Ann Roddy and Michael Eugene Guyton, Guyton was the second eldest out of four children. The family moved around a lot within the state while Guyton was growing up, on account of her father's job as an engineer. Her love for music began at a young age. In fact, she took an interest in the same when she was around five years old.
She was a part of church choirs and often performed with Mount Olive Baptist Church in Arlington. After graduating high school, she moved to Los Angeles to pursue a professional country music career. She ultimately auditioned for 'American Idol' but was ousted just before making it to the top 24.
However, her talent was soon recognized by producer Ulsan Raymond, who introduced her to Gary Borman and Steve Moir, the people who help launch the careers of Faith Hill and Keith Urban. She ultimately moved back to Nashville to pursue the same. After auditioning for the UMG Nashville's chairman Mike Dungan, she was signed on by the label, making her the only Black female country artist to be signed on by a major label.
She nearly gave up on her career
Although she was a part of an All-Star performance at the White House at the start of her career, she struggled to find her identity as a musician. As reported by CNN Entertainment, Guyton even admitted to having developed a drinking problem around this time due to the anxiety. However, in 2015, Guyton's debut single 'Better Than You Left Me' did well on charts, with outlets like The Guardian taking notice that Guyton was a Black woman making waves in a genre dominated by White men.
But Guyton still struggled to truly make her mark and had the odds working against her, seeing that the industry kept trying to fit her in a proverbial box. "I was aimlessly writing songs . . . and I was just getting nowhere,” Guyton said, in an interview with Washington Post. "I was trying to write that country hit that every label is looking for, that magical unicorn." It's around this time she began writing music from a personal space, which led to her writing her, 'What Are You Gonna Tell Her?' However, on its debut, the song was streamed a million times.
Her songwriting on racism stems from her experiences
Guyton has been very vocal about the severe racism she faced while growing up. Her father worked hard to put his children in private school. The public school she should have gone to did not accept Black people, she said, in told NPR in an interview.
However, private school was no better. "The private Christian school, Trinity Lutheran, that I went to, my best friend in class said that her parents called us "N***lets," and laughed about it. At the same time, she also drew inspiration from John Howard Griffin's 'Black Like Me', a book she read in college. The music video was set to go into production around the time the George Floyd murder took place. Compelled by the situation, Guyton released the track on her Instagram as she believed it needed to be heard. Post this, Spotify went on the feature it on 'Blackout Tuesday', which snowballed into the song's and ultimately her success.
She had her first child in January 2021
The past few years have definitely been a whirlwind for Guyton, but luckily, her husband Grant Savoy has been by her side through it all, even encouraging her to keep pursuing her craft when she was ready to give up. Savoy is a lawyer, and the pair began dating back in 2010. They tied the knot in 2017, in an intimate ceremony in Kauai Hawaii. The couple welcomed their son, Grayson, earlier this year.
Her net worth is...
Although Guyton has been around for a while, she has been thrust into the limelight over the past few years with subsequent Grammy nomination and performance making her a household name. Her net worth is estimated to be around $1M, as reported by Gossip Gist.