{"id":546788,"date":"2026-01-27T12:17:26","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T12:17:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/546788\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T12:17:26","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T12:17:26","slug":"why-brandi-carliles-girls-just-wanna-weekend-is-a-utopian-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/546788\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Brandi Carlile&#8217;s Girls Just Wanna Weekend Is a Utopian Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tFor many of the attendees at this year\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/t\/girls-just-wanna-weekend\/\" id=\"auto-tag_girls-just-wanna-weekend\" data-tag=\"girls-just-wanna-weekend\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Girls Just Wanna Weekend<\/a> festival in Mexico, one of the highlights of the four-day gathering came when founder <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/t\/brandi-carlile\/\" id=\"auto-tag_brandi-carlile\" data-tag=\"brandi-carlile\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Brandi Carlile<\/a> stepped out to join co-headliner <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/t\/the-chicks\/\" id=\"auto-tag_the-chicks\" data-tag=\"the-chicks\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the Chicks<\/a> for what can rightly be called one of the signature songs of the 21st century, \u201cNot Ready to Make Nice.\u201d While the duet might have happened under any circumstance where these two artists were set to join forces, it felt especially trenchant, in these tropical climes, given the topical climate back home. The audience of about 5,000, consisting primarily of women, listened to Carlile do her take on a guest verse and then sang or shouted along with the chorus of the Chicks\u2019 almost exactly 20-year-old anthem as if their lives, pride, anger and glee depended on it. Tom Petty\u2019s \u201cI Won\u2019t Back Down\u201d might also serve a sort of universal anthem of defiance, but in \u201cNot Ready to Make Nice,\u201d indomitable women in particular have had \u2014 still have \u2014 a rallying cry of their own.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tBut the other thing about Carlile joining Natalie Maines and the Chicks? Nothing says totally making nice like three-part harmony expanded into four-. And Girls Just Wanna Weekend is about nothing if not about women and non-binary people coming together in a spirit of harmony, figuratively and very, very literally\u2026 with just an undercurrent of FAFO activist energy bubbling underneath.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tGirls Just Wanna Weekend is often characterized, fairly accurately, as a once-a-year modern update\u00a0 of Lilith Fair, with Carlile picking up the flag for a women-based festival that Sarah McLachlan set down. But there\u2019s no doubt that the mid-2020s are feeling more threatening in many ways to much of the core audience than the late \u201890s did. And so the issue arises each January as to whether \u201cthe Brandi bubble\u201d \u2014 as attendees regularly refer to the festival as \u2014 is a place for pure pop-feminist escapism for a weekend south, or whether concerns affecting the largely female, largely gay audience can be kept in mind without popping the rare sense of safety felt by nearly everyone involved.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tCarlile acknowledged that possible dichotomy between girls just wanting to have fun and just wanting to fret about the world in her opening toast (following a land-acknowledgement prelude overseen by Mexican hosts).<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cThe land acknowledgement is a big deal. What I\u2019m doing right now is just about fun,\u201d she said, holding a champagne glass, standing alongside her bandmates Phil and Tim Hanseroth. \u201cBut I think to myself, when I\u2019m falling asleep, how can I give everybody permission to have fun when things are so hard? And it\u2019s a complicated question because none of us want to breed apathy; we want to breed activism, and so we don\u2019t know exactly how to exist in both ways sometimes, do we? We don\u2019t know how to be heartbroken and full of joy at the same time. But joy is essential to resistance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t \u201cYou can resist all you want,\u201d she continued, \u201cbut you won\u2019t do it for long if you don\u2019t know how to recharge your batteries, rest, look inward and have fun. It is resistance, and it\u2019s the kind of resistance that is contagious, that calls other people into resistance \u2014the irresistible resistance of joy. And that\u2019s what I want you to be thinking about this weekend. I want you to have so much fun, but I want to recharge your batteries so that we can go home and go about the work that we all know that we need to do the things that are keeping us up at night. But you\u2019re already doing it. You are already doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tWith that, she dedicated the evening\u2019s performances to Renee Good, and announced a vigil to be held in her honor the following evening (Alex Pretti had not yet been slain at that point). And then, glasses aloft, she offered the festival\u2019s traditional kick-off words: \u201cBottoms up, bitches.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tGirls Just Wanna Weekend is one of the warmest festivals it\u2019s possible to experience during the winter months, although, if we\u2019re talking purely in terms of temperature, it shares that honor with some of the other fests that 100x Presents in the Cancun area in January (including ones headlined or curated by Noah Kahan, Luke Bryan and Dave Matthews). It might be the warmest festival all year if heat is being measured in friendship, nonjudgmental acceptance and a shared sense of social empathy as unifying factors.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"c-lazy-image__img lrv-u-background-color-grey-lightest lrv-u-width-100p lrv-u-display-block lrv-u-height-auto\" src=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/themes\/pmc-variety-2020\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/jensen-JxVZMNBw.jpeg\" alt=\"\" data-lazy- data-lazy- height=\"1000\" width=\"800\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tJensen McRae at Arroba Nat at Brandi Carlile\u2019s Girls Just Wanna Weekend 2026 Music Festival held at Barcelo Maya Riviera in Cancun, Mexico <\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy 100x<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThere may be a trickle-down factor at play there, symbolically and otherwise, with the festival\u2019s figurehead being the woman who is the best known among all pop stars for being eager to share her stage on just about any occasion, whether with elder legends or complete unknowns. Practically unique among the new wave of rocker-led festivals, Carlile is likely to jump on stage for a duet with most of the performances featured through a four-day weekend \u2014 not just with the Chicks and fellow headliner <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/t\/sam-smith\/\" id=\"auto-tag_sam-smith\" data-tag=\"sam-smith\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sam Smith<\/a> but artists like Jensen McRae, Lucius, CMAT, August Ponthier and Jasmine.4.t, not to mention her singing harmony with every non-pro guest picked to participate in the annual round of poolside \u201cBrandi-oke.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"c-lazy-image__img lrv-u-background-color-grey-lightest lrv-u-width-100p lrv-u-display-block lrv-u-height-auto\" src=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/themes\/pmc-variety-2020\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/HannaHanseroth2026Jan17GJWW-17.jpeg\" alt=\"\" data-lazy- data-lazy- height=\"1024\" width=\"683\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tBrandi Carlile and Sam Smith at Girls Just Wanna Weekend in Mexico, Jan. 17, 2026<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tHanna Hanseroth<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tBackstage on night 3, Carlile talked with Variety about some of the dichotomies she\u2019s juggling as the festival gets bigger. Presenting a female-centric bill for a female-centric audience hardly puts any limits on the kind of music being performed, when it reflects Carlile\u2019s wide spectrum of tastes. She grew up wanting to be either Tanya Tucker or Elton John, at any given time in her girlhood, and you could see echoes of both those primary influences in a festival where the Chicks and Smith were her co-toppers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cThat\u2019s so queer, to be able to have both,\u201d Carlile said, smiling after Smith\u2019s ballad-filled but powerhouse set. \u201cYou know, it\u2019s a beautiful thing. Sam was just talking about how we don\u2019t do binaries with fashion. We don\u2019t do binaries with genres, either.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tProtecting the relative intimacy of the festival has been a challenge Carlile has taken on, keeping a substantial focus on affinity groups and seminars during the day, while growing the event for an audience that may just come for the bands. On one level, it\u2019s a big rock show, at least at nighttime, right?<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cIt is a big rock show,\u201d agreed Carlile \u2014 \u201ca big rock show with huge production and big screens and fog machines and huge speakers. And it sounds huge; you know, it sounds like Bonnaroo out there. But it\u2019s not that. And I\u2019m still mystified by the evolution of the festival and how it\u2019s gotten to this point; how we\u2019re getting people like the Chicks and Shania Twain [one of last year\u2019s headliners] and Sam to come out and do this.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cBut it has a scaled feel to it, in the sense of the dynamics,\u201d she continued. \u201cThe interpersonal part of the festival has felt smaller than ever. And that, I think, is my goal, is to create big drama, big moments, big sweeping, loud, profound shows, but then a family environment the rest of the time. So I think that\u2019s a tricky balance to strike, because how do you make something feel like it\u2019s a really big deal and make people feel like they\u2019ve come home?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"c-lazy-image__img lrv-u-background-color-grey-lightest lrv-u-width-100p lrv-u-display-block lrv-u-height-auto\" src=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/themes\/pmc-variety-2020\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/shelby-brandy-FUV1gEbg-e1769369876751.jpeg\" alt=\"\" data-lazy- data-lazy- height=\"755\" width=\"800\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tBrandy Clark and Shelby Lynne at Brandi Carlile\u2019s Girls Just Wanna Weekend 2026 Music Festival held at Barcelo Maya Riviera in Cancun, Mexico <\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy 100x<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tSome of the artist comments during the weekend reflected how paying attendees typically feel. \u201cWe woke up in paradise with a bunch of queers and peers,\u201d said the rising artist Autumn Nicholas, kicking off the pool stage on Friday. \u201cI\u2019m reminded of what a utopia Brandi Carlile created here,\u201d said Brandy Clark, as an aside during a daytime songwriting seminar she was doing with fellow Americana icon Shelby Lynne on Sunday. \u201cThis is the greatest festival on earth,\u201d exulted the trans rocker Jasmine.4.t, who had other fests like a well-received stop at Glastonbury to compare it to.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tBackstage, Sam Smith said, \u201cFrom what I\u2019d seen online and just from knowing Brandi over the last few years, I had a feeling of what this would be, but being on stage tonight and actually seeing and feeling the audience, the kindness in the whole festival is incredible. And something I\u2019ve never actually felt before on stage \u2014 I felt very safe and just free to be myself on stage. I felt no judgment. It\u2019s way more beautiful than I could ever have imagined.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tShelby Lynne came to this year\u2019s GJWW to do a daytime stage chat with Clark, then stuck around for the closing \u201890s tribute celebration, performing a cover of Nirvana\u2019s \u201cSmells Like Teen Spirit\u201d that brought the house down as a highlight of the night or even fest. I caught up with her after the set and she explained that she had offered up a little prayer to Kurt Cobain before going on, which very much seemed to manifest itself in some Method performing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cI\u2019m honored to be invited,\u201d Lynne said. \u201cI always thought for years, maybe they don\u2019t like me, but I\u2019m thrilled to death, to play with Brandi\u2019s band and have the love here. Everybody\u2019s free. There\u2019s no judgment. You know, somebody said to me earlier, \u2018If you lose your child, it\u2019ll come back with a snack and a sunscreen on,\u2019 and it\u2019s true, it\u2019s that kinda loving. There\u2019s not any bullshit here. And the music. I mean, come on, it\u2019s such an eclectic choice; Brandi\u2019s just killing that, with bringing in people that matter and new acts. I love Lucius, and I got to meet with my good friend Shawn Colvin, and we just laughed for about four days.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"c-lazy-image__img lrv-u-background-color-grey-lightest lrv-u-width-100p lrv-u-display-block lrv-u-height-auto\" src=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/themes\/pmc-variety-2020\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/cmat-closer-GUtZSqbA.jpeg\" alt=\"\" data-lazy- data-lazy- height=\"1000\" width=\"800\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tCMAT performs at Girls Just Wanna Weekend<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy 100x<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tAnd then there was CMAT, the Irish singer who has already become a European sensation, exulting in a sensational reception for her mainstage set at GJWW, which some attendees went online to cite as the most thrilling full-length performance of the weekend. \u201cThis whole thing is a cult \u2014 and I\u2019m joining it!\u201d a surprised-seeming CMAT yelped toward the end of her set, as the crowd of about 5,000 roared their eagerness to induct her.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tOut in the audience on the night the Chicks headlined, I spotted a group of five women all dressed in nude-style bodysuits with words and slogans stencilled onto their bodies. This was an homage to the then-Dixie Chicks\u2019 famous \u201cnaked\u201d Entertainment Weekly cover of 2003, fronting an article in which they first explained and stood up behind the anti-war, anti-George W. Bush concert talk that got the group canceled in country music. Having an intimate connection to that particular cover, I went over and chatted them up, and found that, although they hail from different cities, they dress up thematically for every night of every GJJW, a tradition they have kept up since year 3 of the festival, after meeting randomly in year 2.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"c-lazy-image__img lrv-u-background-color-grey-lightest lrv-u-width-100p lrv-u-display-block lrv-u-height-auto\" src=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/themes\/pmc-variety-2020\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/chicks-homage-IMG_2566.jpeg\" alt=\"\" data-lazy- data-lazy- height=\"768\" width=\"1024\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cThe first year we just showed up as newbies and didn\u2019t really know what we were doing,\u201d said Lindsey Sargent, who hails from Seattle, \u201cand by year two we made custom floaties, custom bathing suits, custom costumes. Now it\u2019s whole months of planning and Zoom calls to get all the costumes ordered. These women are in my life because of Brandi, because of the festival. The community that she\u2019s created, it\u2019s incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tOn a personal note, Sargent explained how attending GJWW heals a festering injury from her youth. \u201cI was a big nerd growing up, and summer camp for me was a ton of anxiety and mean girls,\u201d she explained. \u201cAnd now as an adult, I get to go to summer camp and heal the childhood wounds from not being enough, not having the girlfriends, not fitting in. Here, we go hard and we do it, and I relive a piece of my youth that was painful as an adult and just come and have the most joy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tAsked about past GJWW performance highlights from having attended almost every year, Sargent spoke about empathy playing a role even in choosing a favorite for that. \u201cJanelle Mon\u00e1e was insane,\u201d she said. \u201cBut the year Wynonna was here right after her mom had passed away, in my heart, I could feel Wynonna\u2019s sadness. There was the sweetest trans person up in the front row that had a sign they were holding up for Wynona, and she acknowledged them \u2014 they had this moment. Then they took off the most ugly, huge binder bra you\u2019ve ever seen and threw it up on stage, and Wynonna was like, \u2018No one has ever thrown a bra at me before!\u2019 And all bets were off at that point \u2014 everyone was throwing bras at Wynonna, and Brandi\u2019s running around the stage, picking up bras, hanging them on her mic stand. She showed up at all the events, and we were just giving her love because we knew she was in a moment of her life where she needed some lady power, so we gave it to her.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tSam Smith might have seemed to at least a few festivalgoers like a left-field pick, when virtually everyone who had been on the bills for the previous six editions of the festival had either been female-identifying or started their careers as such. Carlile called Smith the first non-binary headliner at the festival, and some attendees pointed out that that wasn\u2019t strictly true, when Monae had come out as non-binary not long before co-headling GJWW \u2014 but it was accurate inasmuch as Smith was the first such guest star to have initially risen to stardom with a he\/him identity.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tCarlile said backstage that imagining Smith could be part of GJWW came from \u201cthinking about how cool it would be to celebrate Sam\u2019s kind of feminine energy at this festival and how needed that was \u00a0to expand our understanding of the feminine, to include Sam in a really profound way. And I think tonight I saw that play out, and it was stunning.\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2026\/music\/news\/brandi-carlile-sam-smith-joint-interview-girls-just-wanna-1236635992\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read here<\/a> for Variety\u2018s full joint backstage <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2026\/music\/news\/brandi-carlile-sam-smith-joint-interview-girls-just-wanna-1236635992\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">interview with Smith and Carlile<\/a>.]<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tAnother artist who has changed pronouns, much more recently in this case, was August Ponthier, who played the pool stage for a second year in a row, but for only the first time as August. Last year, the acclaimed young pop singer-songwriter was she\/her, and determinedly lesbian, instead of they\/them, which was announced just weeks before this year\u2019s festival.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cLast year I played here under a different first name, in a different mindset,\u201d said Ponthier, taking a poolside break. \u201cI\u2019ve always had big support from other LGBTQ+ people, but there really is nothing like this, at least not that I\u2019ve been to. And last year, being able to be in a space where I not only was around queer people my age, but queer people who are my past, present, and future all in one place together, really set my intention for the year, and I don\u2019t think it\u2019s a coincidence that I played Girls Just Wanna before I went through a lot of personal change. That experience kind of carried me into a year where I made a lot of decisions about wanting to live my life the way that I\u2019ve always wanted to live it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"c-lazy-image__img lrv-u-background-color-grey-lightest lrv-u-width-100p lrv-u-display-block lrv-u-height-auto\" src=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/themes\/pmc-variety-2020\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/brandi-august-duet-lWnxbFLw.jpeg\" alt=\"\" data-lazy- data-lazy- height=\"1000\" width=\"800\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tBrandi Carlile and August Ponthier duet at Girls Just Wanna Weekend 2026 Music Festival held at Barcelo Maya Riviera in Cancun, Mexico <\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy 100x<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cBrandi in general has really made me feel like a lot more things are possible,\u201d they continued. \u201cI think I really boxed myself in, emotionally, and I was afraid to make big choices or afraid to exist in the way that made me feel the most comfortable because I had this imaginary audience around me telling me that maybe I was someone who could be voted on \u2014 like maybe I should only do what people find the most comfortable or the most interesting or most palatable. Being around Brandi has really made me value being a trailblazer, because she is a trailblazer, and her seeing herself in me makes me feel like that\u2019s possible.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tCarlile offered musical and not just moral support by joining Ponthier to duet on the title song of August\u2019s upcoming album \u201cEverywhere Isn\u2019t Texas,\u201d twice, first during the founder\u2019s own headlining set and then later during the younger artist\u2019s acoustic pool performance. It\u2019s a song about Ponthier grappling with leaving their home state for more queer-hospitable climes, but still having affection for it. \u201cI think the reason that that song connected with her is because she is an artist that makes protest music\u2026 That song is about how I grew up in Texas and I felt like I loved it, but it did not love me back. I felt like I was being pushed out, kind of like the way white blood cells will push out an infection, and I didn\u2019t want to feel like I was diseased or wrong or made wrong. And because I can\u2019t stop thinking about home and all the things that happen there because Texas is a leader in politics, it became the title of the album. It just is the most complicated and deep love of my life, and it resonated with Brandi, who\u2019s not someone that\u2019s afraid to talk about politics or to stand up for what she believes in. It means a lot that a major artist would be so brave and talk about a state that is really polarizing and sing alongside with me.\u201d Of Texas generally, Ponthier says, \u201cWe can love something and be critical of it at the same time and want better for it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tPonthier was on their way from this chat to a trans and non-binary affinity gathering hosted by Jasmine.4.t, the festival\u2019s first mainstage trans performer. Not all the daytime activities were as serious as all that: Attendees could attend or participate in a soccer game, with Olympian Abby Wambaugh as coach; a \u201890s costume contest judged by SistaStrings; drag bingo with Anania; or a Carlile tour trivia contest with the Hanseroth Twins.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"c-lazy-image__img lrv-u-background-color-grey-lightest lrv-u-width-100p lrv-u-display-block lrv-u-height-auto\" src=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/themes\/pmc-variety-2020\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/l-word-vvBOflbQ.jpeg\" alt=\"\" data-lazy- data-lazy- height=\"1000\" width=\"800\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tKate Moennig and Leisha Hailey speak at Brandi Carlile\u2019s Girls Just Wanna Weekend 2026 Music Festival held at Barcelo Maya Riviera in Cancun, Mexico <\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy 100x<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tMeanwhile, in one of the few instances in which fans have ever had to make a choice between Carlile and the Hanseroths, overlapping with the trivia contest the brothers hosted was Brandi\u2019s on-stage interview with the stars of \u201cThe L-Word\u201d who recently released a book titled \u201cSo Gay for You,\u201d Leisha Hailey and Kate Moennig. (The two actors teased during the conversation that they had a big announcement they\u2019d wanted to make there that would have to wait another couple weeks, because of contracts not yet signed.) The weightier fare in the daytime events schedule included a showing of the Oscar-nominated (and Carlile-coproduced) documentary \u201cCome See Me in the Good Light,\u201d with one of the movie\u2019s subjects, Megan Falley, interviewed by Glennon Doyle; a seminar for parents of trans and non-binary teens; a BIPOC \u201ccentering joy\u201d happy hour; and a workshop titled \u201cHot &amp; Healthy: Pleasure, Power, and Aging in Our Bodies.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThe focus in that latter seminar on midlife issues was raised in a different way by a comic, Kristen Key, returning for the second year to do a comedy set on the final night. Her focus on \u201cold lesbians\u201d cracked the house up \u2014 and, she predicted, would offend a few, even though the fortysomething Key counts herself in that demographic. Getting serious for a moment backstage, Key said, \u201cThe difference between a comedy club and thousands of people at Girls Just Wanna Weekend is just the amount of dopamine that gets dripping out of your ears from having that much love thrown at you all at once. You just really just get to live a dream by being on stage and having that much positivity and love come at you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"c-lazy-image__img lrv-u-background-color-grey-lightest lrv-u-width-100p lrv-u-display-block lrv-u-height-auto\" src=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/themes\/pmc-variety-2020\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/kristen-key-brandi-IMG_2557.jpeg\" alt=\"\" data-lazy- data-lazy- height=\"768\" width=\"1024\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tOn-stage, Key riffed, \u201cI came here last year and it is magical. This place will transform you, and I mean, literally many women walk in married straight ladies and walk out late-in-life lesbians. Not, like, a few\u2026 like, a percentage of this audience came to Girls Just Wanna married to Frank and they leave engaged to Veronica. I\u2019m beginning to suspect that Brandi puts subliminal messages in her songs that turns straight women gay. \u2026 They\u2019re just innocently listening at home\u201d \u2014 she sang a snippet of \u201cThe Story\u201d \u2014 \u201cand then they listen to the record backwards: \u2018Your husband doesn\u2019t please you.\u2019\u201d Key also referred to a moment from opening night when Leisha Hailey joined Carlile on stage to duet on \u201cFake Plastic Trees.\u201d \u201cWhen you brought out Alice from \u2018The L-Word\u2019 to sing Radiohead,\u201d Key said, \u201cI mean, there wasn\u2019t a dry pair of Woxers in Mexico.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"c-lazy-image__img lrv-u-background-color-grey-lightest lrv-u-width-100p lrv-u-display-block lrv-u-height-auto\" src=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/themes\/pmc-variety-2020\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Leisha-P1354282.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-lazy- data-lazy- height=\"776\" width=\"1024\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThe fact that Key can do a 35-minute set in front of thousands of people consisting 95% of lesbian humor may raise the question: How gay do you have to be to attend Girls Just Wanna Weekend? The answer is, not very, although at least liking lesbians enough to laugh with and not at their culture surely counts as a prerequisite. The audience for GJWW probably skews \u2014 in a very unscientific survey \u2014 about 90% female and about 70% queer (including gay men). But straight women and men and cis couples, with and without children in tow, are plentiful enough, and all apparently enjoying a bubble that presents a happy fantasy of just how beneficient an actual matriarchy might feel, even for those not part of that cheerfully lopsided majority.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"c-lazy-image__img lrv-u-background-color-grey-lightest lrv-u-width-100p lrv-u-display-block lrv-u-height-auto\" src=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/themes\/pmc-variety-2020\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/lucius-cyndi-aeTvThew.jpeg\" alt=\"\" data-lazy- data-lazy- height=\"1000\" width=\"800\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tLucius performs at Brandi Carlile\u2019s Girls Just Wanna Weekend<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtes 100x<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tOne thing that can easily bring any audience of straights and queers or women, men and binary people together, without fail, here or probably anywhere: \u201880s and \u201890s nostalgia. Lucius began the Sunday night mainstage music with a magnificent rendering of Cyndi Lauper\u2019s entire \u201cShe\u2019s So Unusual\u201d album. And then, before everyone was sent home to the land of ICE, the closing night of GJWW provided a pure, epic bacchanal of covers from the 1990s, arguably the last era in which there was anything resembling a pop monoculture. Carlile did not sing her planned cover of Whitney Houston\u2019s \u201cI Have Nothing,\u201d having sung with so many artists and fans over the previous four days that she didn\u2019t quite feel up to tackling that summit. But even without taking one last lead vocal, the host was on stage singing backup for a long succession of tribute songs.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"c-lazy-image__img lrv-u-background-color-grey-lightest lrv-u-width-100p lrv-u-display-block lrv-u-height-auto\" src=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/themes\/pmc-variety-2020\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/glennon-abby-GJWW2026_0118_225908-6775_ALIVE-e1769369406664.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-lazy- data-lazy- height=\"1024\" width=\"1022\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tGlennon Doyle and Abby Wambach perform at Brandi Carlile\u2019s Girls Just Wanna Weekend 2026 Music Festival held at Barcelo Maya Riviera in Cancun, Mexico <\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tALIVE for 100x Hospitality<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tHighlights, besides the aforementioned Shelby Lynne\/Nirvana moment, included: SistaStrings\u2019 Chauntee and Carlile\u2019s new bass player, Solomon Dorsey, doing a sublimely belted version of Celine Dion\u2019s and Andrea Bocelli\u2019s quasi-classical \u201cThe Prayer,\u201d complete with Italian verses. Dorsey and Lucius doing another \u201890s movie theme, \u201cA Whole New World,\u201d with the two women of Lucius emerging from behind a magic carpet to bust in with their parts. A Spice Girls homage that had Catherine Carlile joined by British TV host and comic Alan Carr, baring his midriff. Joy Oladokun\u2019s take on the Fugees\u2019 take on \u201cKilling Me Softly.\u201d Mexican singer Arroba Nat rousingly bringing things closer to home with a lone Spanish-language number of the night, Selena\u2019s \u201cComo la Flor.\u201d Wambach and Doyle athletically leaping into one another\u2019s arms during an affectionately pitchy cover of Melissa Etheridge\u2019s \u201cCome to My Window.\u201d The very promising upcomer Autumn Nicholas bittersweetly sewing up \u201cTorn.\u201d Carlile\u2019s brother, Jay, getting in one of the few male lead vocals of the weekend with a sibling version of \u201cBoot Scootin\u2019 Boogie.\u201d And, complete with a kids\u2019 chorus, a closing gospel group-sing of the \u201cJoyful, Joyful\u201d medley from \u201cSister Act 2.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"c-lazy-image__img lrv-u-background-color-grey-lightest lrv-u-width-100p lrv-u-display-block lrv-u-height-auto\" src=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/themes\/pmc-variety-2020\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/GJWW2026_0116_234854-9053_ALIVE-e1769371125734.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-lazy- data-lazy- height=\"788\" width=\"1024\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tThe Chicks perform at Brandi Carlile\u2019s Girls Just Wanna Weekend 2026 Music Festival held at Barcelo Maya Riviera in Cancun, Mexico on January 15-19, 2026. <\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tALIVE for 100x Hospitality<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tBut the choicest cover of GJWW 7? That may have belonged to the Chicks, who, one night earlier, used their first concert in three years as a chance to bust out a freshly minted cover of Sabrina Carpenter\u2019s \u201cManchild.\u201d It was ostensibly light-hearted\u2026 but given that most in attendance were about to return to a land where manchildren are having a deep and deleterious effect on an entire citizenship\u2019s lives every day, it felt like it fit in right alongside \u201cNot Ready to Make Nice\u201d as a protest song.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"c-lazy-image__img lrv-u-background-color-grey-lightest lrv-u-width-100p lrv-u-display-block lrv-u-height-auto\" src=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/themes\/pmc-variety-2020\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/joy-GJWW2026_0115_204225-2127_ALIVE.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-lazy- data-lazy- height=\"1024\" width=\"819\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tJoy Oladokun at Brandi Carlile\u2019s Girls Just Wanna Weekend 2026 Music Festival held at Barcelo Maya Riviera in Cancun, Mexico on January 15-19, 2026. <\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tALIVE for 100x Hospitality<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"c-lazy-image__img lrv-u-background-color-grey-lightest lrv-u-width-100p lrv-u-display-block lrv-u-height-auto\" src=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/themes\/pmc-variety-2020\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/wider-crowd-hZ5gKqoQ.jpeg\" alt=\"\" data-lazy- data-lazy- height=\"682\" width=\"1024\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tBrandi Carlile\u2019s Girls Just Wanna Weekend 2026 Music Festival held at Barcelo Maya Riviera in Cancun, Mexico <\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy 100x<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"c-lazy-image__img lrv-u-background-color-grey-lightest lrv-u-width-100p lrv-u-display-block lrv-u-height-auto\" src=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/themes\/pmc-variety-2020\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/arroba-GJWW2026_0118_234356-8311_ALIVE-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-lazy- data-lazy- height=\"1024\" width=\"819\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tArroba Nat at Brandi Carlile\u2019s Girls Just Wanna Weekend 2026 Music Festival held at Barcelo Maya Riviera in Cancun, Mexico on January 15-19, 2026. <\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tALIVE for 100x Hospitality<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"c-lazy-image__img lrv-u-background-color-grey-lightest lrv-u-width-100p lrv-u-display-block lrv-u-height-auto\" src=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/themes\/pmc-variety-2020\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/brandi-sista-jMRmg_w.jpeg\" alt=\"\" data-lazy- data-lazy- height=\"1000\" width=\"800\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"c-lazy-image__img lrv-u-background-color-grey-lightest lrv-u-width-100p lrv-u-display-block lrv-u-height-auto\" src=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/themes\/pmc-variety-2020\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/brandi-in-pool-gEgBtXvg.jpeg\" alt=\"\" data-lazy- data-lazy- height=\"1000\" width=\"800\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tBrandi Carlile joins the pool party at Girls Just Wanna Weekend 2026 Music Festival held at Barcelo Maya Riviera in Cancun, Mexico <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For many of the attendees at this year\u2019s Girls Just Wanna Weekend festival in Mexico, one of the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":546789,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[46855,171,240448,975,77191,219938,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-546788","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-brandi-carlile","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-girls-just-wanna-weekend","11":"tag-music","12":"tag-sam-smith","13":"tag-the-chicks","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115967023853937350","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=546788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546788\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/546789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=546788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=546788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=546788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}