Thomas Rhett’s oldest daughter, five-year-old Willa Gray, recently tried her hand at the family business: She’s written her very first song.
With help from her dad, Willa shared her song with TR’s social media followers this week in a video message, shyly whispering something in his ear when he asks her what she wants to title her song.
“You wrote it! What do you wanna call it? ‘Willa Gray’s First Song’?” Thomas continues, getting a nod in response.
The father-daughter pair then debut the song, with vocals performed by Willa herself over an uptempo, pop-leaning track. It may be too soon in the artist’s career to tell how influenced she is by her famous dad’s country leanings, but she certainly borrows from the genre’s tradition of writing about good times with all her rowdy friends.
The lyrics name-check her younger siblings, Lennon Love and Ada James, as well as two more friends, Luca Reed and Olivia Rose, who are the children of Florida Georgia Line singer Tyler Hubbard.
“Your name is Willa Gray / I wanna come to play,” she sings. “With Liv and Luca / Lennon, Everleigh and Adaline / Anybody doesn’t have to go home / You can spend the night with us…”
“Willa Gray’s First Song” also features the joyful refrain, “You don’t have to do nothing for yourself.”
As a songwriter, Willa is following in some big footsteps. Not only is her dad a bona fide country superstar, but her grandfather is Rhett Akins, ‘90s hitmaker and a legendary Music City songwriter in his own right.
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