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Candace Mycale " Mickey" Guyton (; born June 17, 1983) is an American country music artist. Raised in Texas, Guyton was exposed to various types of music at a young age, and her material incorporates elements of contemporary country, pop, and R&B music. She moved to Nashville, Tennessee, in 2011 and signed a recording contract with Capitol Records Nashville. In 2015, the label released Guyton's debut extended play (EP), Unbreakable.
In 2015, Capitol released her debut single, titled "Better Than You Left Me". The song reached number 34 on the US Country Airplay chart and earned her a nomination from the Academy of Country Music Awards. The same year, her second self-titled EP was released. In 2020, in the wake of the George Floyd protests and the Black Lives Matter movement, Guyton released the single "Black Like Me", which speaks to her experiences as a Black woman in country music. The song helped further elevate Guyton's career and resulted in her first ever nomination at the Grammy Awards, becoming the first Black woman to ever be nominated in the Best Country Solo Performance category. Later that year, her third extended play Bridges was released. She then collaborated with Dean Brody on the song "Boys" which made her the first Black woman to achieve a number one hit on the Canada Country chart. Her debut album Remember Her Name followed in 2021.
Guyton also began singing as a child and developed an interest in music around five years old. She often performed in church choirs, notably at Mount Olive Baptist Church in Arlington. She was inspired to begin a singing career after she saw LeAnn Rimes sing "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the start of a Texas Rangers game. She moved to Los Angeles, California after graduating high school to pursue country music professionally while attending Santa Monica College. She studied business and also worked several minimum wage jobs to support herself. Several of the jobs included work as a background vocalist, including an appearance singing in Nick Cannon's film Underclassman. Additionally, she sang on demonstration records and auditioned for the seventh season of American Idol. Guyton's American Idol run ended just before the live shows for the top 24, and she appeared only briefly on television during her final singing performance of the audition rounds.
As she developed her artistry, Guyton was warned by industry professionals that she would be unsuccessful if she went outside traditional country music boundaries: "Make sure your songs sound really country because listeners might think you're being disingenuous. Don't make your songs sound too R&B," she recalled to CNN. She was asked by a country radio DJ to write songs that reflected "fluffy" and "happy" topics. The stress and anxiety of these instances caused Guyton to develop insomnia and a drinking problem. These conflicts, along with the difficulties of establishing an identity at Capitol Records, caused her music releases to be delayed by several years. In 2014, Capitol Nashville released Guyton's first extended play (EP), an acoustic album titled Unbreakable. The EP charted on the Billboard Top Heatseekers list after its release, reaching number 14.
In 2015, Capitol released Guyton's debut single, "Better Than You Left Me". Guyton co-wrote the song with Jennifer Hanson, Jen Schott, and Nathan Chapman, the last of whom co-produced it with Dann Huff. The song received 79 ads to radio playlists in its first week of release, which had not been previously done. The Guardian made note of the song's early success on the charts, particularly in relation to Guyton's being a Black female in a genre dominated by white men. By July 2015, the song had reached number 34 on the Billboard Country Airplay chart. It reached a similar peak position on Canada's Billboard country chart. According to Guyton, the song's minimal chart success was due to radio programmers stating "they didn't want two slow songs by women on the radio at the same time." In May 2015, Guyton's self-titled second EP was released on Capitol and contained the minor hit. The EP reached number 17 on the Billboard Heatseekers list by August. The project received a four star rating from Queens of Country, who praised Guyton's vocals and mix of different musical stylings. Guyton also joined Brad Paisley's Crushin' It World Tour in summer 2015.
Guyton chose to write music that reflected more of her struggles as a black woman. In early 2020, she released a single that came from those songwriting sessions titled "What Are You Gonna Tell Her?". It was followed by the single "Black Like Me". Based on the book of the same name, the song described Guyton's experiences with racial discrimination. It was largely ignored by commercial country radio, but received significant attention on social media platforms and streaming services, with Spotify including "Black Like Me" on their "Hot Country Playlist". Critics also took notice of the track. John Blake of CNN called it "a three-and-a-half-minute song that flipped the good ol' boy patriotism of country music on its side and forced listeners to consider a different perspective." Jewly Hight of NPR praised Guyton's blend of country, Gospel music and pop vocal styles. The song was later nominated for Best Country Solo Performance at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards. The Grammy nomination made Guyton the first black female artist to be nominated in the country category.
In 2020, Guyton became the first black female artist to perform at the Academy of Country Music awards. Capitol then released her third EP titled Bridges (2020). The project featured her two previous singles and her third 2020 single, "Heaven Down Here". Four of its six tracks were "sobering personal testimonies", according to Taste of Country. Bridges peaked at number 23 on the Billboard charts Heatseekers album chart in September 2020. In November 2020, she collaborated with Canadian country singer Dean Brody on the duet "Boys". The single reached number one on the Canada Country singles chart, giving Guyton her first career chart-topper, and making her the first black woman to top the Canada Country chart.
In an interview with The New Yorker, Guyton revealed the release of her debut studio album called Remember Her Name. She described the album as a look into her ten years living in Nashville, with songs directly addressing experiences of sexism and racism. The album was released in September 2020 and included "Black Like Me", a re-recording of "Better Than You Left Me", and a cover of Beyoncé's "If I Were a Boy". Rating it 3.5 out of 5 stars, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic wrote, "If the bombast and ballads flatten the production of Remember Her Name somewhat, it nevertheless feels genuine, not calculated. Guyton is broadening and expanding the genre-bending sounds of 1990s country-pop".
In February 2022, Guyton performed the National Anthem at Super Bowl LVI. In 2023, Guyton was a coach and judge on My Kind of Country. In Guyton announced that she was working on new music with Florida Georgia Line's Tyler Hubbard. The first Hubbard-produced single was 2022's "Somethin' Bout You". In 2023, Guyton announced via the social media the release of her next radio single "Nothing Compares to You". The song was composed by Hubbard and featured vocals from Kane Brown.
Guyton performed her song "All American" at the 2024 Democratic National Convention on August 19, 2024.
Capitol Records released Guyton's second studio album, House on Fire, in September 2024. The album includes twelve songs all co-written by Guyton, along with a duet with Kane Brown. Prior to the album's release, she issued the title track and "My Side of the Country" as preview singles.
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