It’s been seven years since the then-13-year-old Courtney Hadwin stunned the world with her vocal talents with a phenomenal ‘America’s Got Talent’ audition. Since then, Courtney has honed her artistic identity, excelled as a songwriter, and experienced a wealth of life experiences which inform her music.
Now Courtney Hadwin is set to fulfill that world-conquering potential as she recently announced that her debut album ‘Little Miss Jagged’ will be released on 12th September 2025. The record was launched by sharing its lead single ‘You Only Love Me When I Lie’ and she shares its official video.
Courtney explains, “I loved every minute working on the ‘You Only Love Me When I Lie’ set and portraying myself as a woman and not a child. A big part of my journey and this song was showing and telling how I’m no longer that kid everyone wants me to be. Everyone grows up and changes and sometimes when you’re in the limelight and achieve that at such a young age many people expect you to not develop and change in the normal way we all do”.
‘Little Miss Jagged’ is a phenomenally confident debut album which fizzes with Courtney’s irrepressible spirit. That famous soul-and-blues powerhouse vocal is even more arresting than before, while the album switches up moods and genre touchpoints from swaggering hard rock to Motown to funk, punk and epic balladeering.
Courtney’s voice hits hard with touches of greats such as Janis Joplin, Aretha Franklin and Tina Turner, but there’s a youthful energy and a contemporary edge that makes her very much her own artist. She collaborated on the majority of the set with the Grammy-winning co-writer/producer Kevin Bowe (Etta James, Joe Cocker) during sessions in Minneapolis.
Watch the official music video below.
Courtney says, “They’re coming-of-age songs, written either when I was going through the worst of times or when I felt on top of the world. I’m both nervous and excited to be putting them out into the world, as this is the most personal I’ve ever been in my songwriting. It’s the story so far.”
