Angie K
Angie K is building a plane. She is a mechanic by trade, and she’s always wanted to build one, so she’s doing it. This isn’t a metaphor for the country singer-songwriter’s musical career, but the methodical approach to achieving her goals that she relies on as she assembles her plane has made it possible to raise her profile and make a return visit to CMA Fest.
“Mechanics figure things out and don’t throw away broken things — they fix them,” says Angie K. “That mentality — and those kind of people — really drew me to country and made me feel like that’s where I belong.”
This approach also informs how she uses audience feedback to craft compelling music.
“I love how much information comes from playing a song and watching people’s faces change, and when it connects and when it doesn’t,” she says. “It’s like you’re constantly just building something, you’re tinkering with it, and there’s never really any right or wrong, or end destination.”
In fact, Angie K’s entry into full-time music exemplifies her knack for analysis and her willingness to trust her gut. She was born in El Salvador and grew up in Georgia. While she was a student, she was riding her bike to work one day and realized she could combine her love of music with her desire to travel. The obvious solution? Performing on a cruise ship. She landed that gig and excelled at it, which led to more gigs and then to the 10th season of The Voice. Her strong performance there encouraged her to come to Nashville. Years of standout singles and live shows eventually led to her appearing at CMA Fest at the Country Proud showcase in 2023 and during last year’s Latin Roots panel conversation — and her self-titled EP, self-released in February.
Angie K
“I think that a lot of people see things as there’s one or two ways of doing it,” says Angie K. “And I love the fact that there’s a million — a trillion — different ways to do anything. And I have such a belief that whatever anybody’s desire is in their heart, the joy is figuring out how to get there. But it’s not gonna be joyful if you don’t believe you can get there.”
Angie K has a very busy day on Friday, June 6. In addition to her official CMA Fest show at the Chevy Vibes Stage, she’ll perform at two other independent events: at 6 p.m. during Spotify House’s Fresh Finds rooftop showcase at Ole Red and at Plaza Mariachi during Country con Corazón (which begins at 7:30 p.m.). The Plaza Mariachi event, held in the part of South Nashville where ICE conducted mass arrests in May, is a showcase of Latino country artists sponsored by the Country Latin Association, of which Angie K is a co-founder, and Origins Music Group. Frank Ray, MÕRIAH, Andrea Vasquez (another CLA co-founder) and garzon will also perform.
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Angie K notes that, unlike during recent CMA Fests, there are no official stages explicitly featuring LGBTQ or other diverse talent. However, she is still committed to challenging the standards of country music. On Saturday afternoon, at 1:45 p.m. inside Fan Fair X, the Country Latin Association will also present a panel titled Latino Trailblazers in Country, hosted by Rolling Stone’s Tomás Mier and featuring the aforementioned MŌRIAH alongside Carín León, Kat Luna and Los Hermanos Mendoza.
“Los Hermanos Mendoza, in my opinion, are one of the biggest stars that are gonna come out in the next couple years,” says Angie K. Mexico’s Carín León is one of many stars in Latin America who she feels could be hugely successful if they were to cross over into American country music. The Country Latin Association seeks to increase awareness of — and build infrastructure for — Latino artists. Angie K credits the Black Opry and Rissi Palmer’s Color Me Country as inspirations.
One of her biggest goals for the CLA organization is to help artists sign up for memberships with professional organizations like the CMA. It is common practice for major recording artists — or their labels — to buy memberships for an artist’s team in order to ensure they have representation in voting categories. While it may be uncouth to refer to this process as packing the vote, it is nevertheless how things work.
“You can look at it two ways,” she says. “You can be angry that the system works that way, or you can say, ‘Well, how can I do that?’”
Angie K’s approach is more than just a pragmatic mechanic’s logic, however. Earning nominations — and even awards — would garner more industry support for Latin country artists. But there’s more at stake. “When we start talking to each other and understanding these other cultures, it makes us all grow,” she notes. With that in mind, she stresses the importance of uplifting South Nashville.
“The community has a lot of fear right now. The more we see each other as ourselves, the less these problems will become so much worse than they are now. Right now we need people that are outside the Hispanic community to go support it and their businesses, because the Latin Hispanic community are scared to leave their houses. We really want the Plaza Mariachi show to be a success for that reason.”
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