Jelly Roll, Lainey Wilson among Nashville stars named State Department global ambassadors

A quintet of Nashville stars are achieving U.S. Government and YouTube-defined mega-acclaim via a new initiative.

On Monday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and YouTube's Global Head of Music Lyor Cohen announced that Chuck D, Grace Bowers, BRELAND, Kane Brown, Herbie Hancock, Denyce Graves, Jelly Roll, Teddy Swims, Justin Tranter, Armani White, and Lainey Wilson will serve as U.S. Global Music Ambassadors.

The new Department of State-YouTube partnership supports the Department's Global Music Diplomacy Initiative. This worldwide effort aims to, as a press statement offers, "elevate music as a diplomatic platform to promote peace and democracy in support of the United States' broader foreign policy goals."

From both a creative branding and digital access standpoint, Nashville favorites Bowers, BRELAND, Brown, Jelly Roll and Wilson have, in the past decade, distinguished themselves as country-to-crossover stars via their massive streaming and video appeal on platforms including YouTube.

Background on the partnership

This new partnership was catalyzed by the bipartisan, U.S. House of Representatives-introduced PEACE (Promoting Peace, Education, and Cultural Exchange) Through Music Diplomacy Act. This 2022 law authorized the State Department to work with the private sector to design and implement music-related exchange programs.

It was first introduced in the House of Representatives by Recording Academy-supported representatives Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) and Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL) and advocated for by the Recording Academy during its annual GRAMMYs on the Hill Advocacy Day in Washington, D.C.

Achieving these aims via The Global Music Ambassador program mirrors how, 70 years ago, at the Cold War's inception, the United States sent artists like Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie and Sarah Vaughn overseas as diplomats able to bridge cultural gaps and cultivate goodwill via the Jazz Ambassadors program.

Starting in 1956, the State Department began hiring jazz musicians to improve America's public image in light of criticism from the Soviet Union regarding racial inequality and tension.

The "quality of their musicianship" and "integrity" of the selected artists were considered necessary, blending with jazz's strong association with racial equality and harmony via racially mixed bands.

In the decades since then, the U.S. State Department has maintained vestiges of the program in partnership with the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The State Department has also sponsored hip-hop artists who have similarly toured in the Middle East.

Nashville's global ambassadors speak

For Jelly Roll — an oft-incarcerated ex-felon turned breakout country and rock superstar — he notes that being able to announce his first official international tour dates made partnering with YouTube and the U.S. State Department to be a Global Music Ambassador feel "especially meaningful."

BRELAND, an already frequently world-traveled performer whose curiosity, intellect and time spent with a family of gospel singers, added that time spent in South Africa informed him with a newfound appreciation of how "music was a unifier, a common language in a multilingual society, an integral part of their history and modern-day culture."

Moreover, in his Nashville career, going out to Australia to write songs with Keith Urban and watching his songs expand in global popularity has redoubled his passion for exploring how country music's "uniquely connective storytelling tissue" can "build cultural bridges around the world in a way only music can."

Bowers adds, "Music is one of the most important things to me and has brought so many incredible people into my life. I'm honored that I get to be a U.S. Global Music Ambassador, it's a very cool opportunity for music to bring the world together and help further peace."

Next steps for State Department/YouTube partnerships

In addition to the new U.S. Global Music Ambassadors, the State Department and YouTube will develop English language learning enhancers through music and across the YouTube platform.

Aspiring creators — initially in Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, and India — will also be offered micro-grants to State Department exchange programs worldwide (notably to coincide with global moments, such as the G20 meetings in Brazil on Nov. 18-19, 2024) to expand access to "education, economic opportunity, equity, and inclusion."

More information about the State Department’s music diplomacy efforts can be found by visiting state.gov/music-diplomacy

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Jelly Roll, Lainey Wilson among Nashville stars named global ambassadors