Callista Clark

Callista Clark stepped forward at seventeen as a bold singer and songwriter who reshaped her country heritage with a voice all her own. Her brash early-2021 single “It’s Cause I Am,” which climbed to number 30 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, and the accompanying debut EP Real to Me showcased a fearless lyrical touch and self-assured delivery that invited comparisons to Maren Morris and Jennifer Nettles. The reflective ballad “Gave It Back Broken,” issued in April 2022, became her first new recording after her Grand Ole Opry debut the preceding July.

Raised in Zebulon, Georgia, she sang in church and started composing songs at eleven. Immersed in the sounds of Travis Tritt, Randy Travis, the Judds, and Aretha Franklin, she mastered guitar, piano, banjo, and mandolin on her own. At twelve she shared a stage with Sugarland’s Jennifer Nettles during a local 4-H awards ceremony. Around that period she began uploading covers to social media to keep friends connected; her take on the Beatles’ “I Want to Hold Your Hand” drew hundreds of thousands of plays, yet a beach-vacation rendition of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Have You Ever Seen the Rain?” generated tens of millions of views and caught the ear of Big Machine Records. Clark signed with the label at fifteen and began shaping her first project alongside Jonathan Singleton, Emily Shackleton, and Laura Veltz. The Real to Me EP arrived in February 2021, anchored by the defiant single “It’s Cause I Am.” That April she made her national television debut on Live with Kelly and Ryan, and on July 30 she appeared for the first time at the Grand Ole Opry.

She soon delivered fresh material, co-writing the ballad “Gave It Back Broken” with Emily Shackelton—known for her work with Carly Pearce and NBC’s Nashville—and releasing it in April 2022.