Cali Tucker Proves She's Standing on Her Own Two Boots with New Single 'Country Couture' (Exclusive)

Cali Tucker spent most of her life idolizing her aunt, Tanya Tucker.

“I remember riding the bus and backstage at her shows,” Tucker recalled in a recent interview with PEOPLE. “I’m sure I went to every city in the country. I just remember it being such a great, fun time.”

But then the tides turned.

“I went through a phase where I didn’t want to do country music,” recalls Tucker, a Season 6 finalist Vote. “I didn’t want to be anything like my aunt. I didn’t want anyone to think I was riding her coattails, because I never was. And I never will. She’ll always just be my aunt and do her thing and I do mine. I really wanted to make sure that when people hear my music and when people get to know me as an artist, they’ll know that this is going to be completely different.”

Even so, there’s a certain blend of sweet and sassy that ultimately runs throughout the legendary Tucker family lineage, and that infectious combination seems to be evident in Tucker’s country/pop/R&B-infused song “Country Couture.”

“I’ve always lived this country fashion lifestyle, but I never really put a name to it,” Tucker recalls. “And the line ‘country couture’ just came to me and I thought, man, I have to write a song about this opposite side of my life.”

Cali Tucker.

Fred Morledge at PhotoFM.com

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Indeed, Tucker has long vacillated between her life in Las Vegas, where she works as a seasoned singing host, and the much more subdued life she can still find in Nashville. In fact, Tucker says she thinks Nashville ultimately inspired “Country Couture,” which she ultimately co-wrote with G’harah “PK” Degeddingseze and Tricia Battani.

“It was 2022 and I moved to Nashville to be with my family to take a break from Vegas to write and find my way again,” she remembers. “In Vegas I was in all these beautiful dresses and going to these beautiful places and performing. But now, here I was at the ranch and I just put on a T-shirt and jeans and hit horses and birds and dogs and I still love that lifestyle .”

And just like his famous aunt, Tucker is not one to be tied down.

“We don’t just want to be put in one little box,” says big Shanie Twain fan. “We want to explore all the different sides of who we are as people and our fashion and the things we like. I always want to be very exploratory with my brand and how I come across, but at the end of the day, I’m still a girl in a T-shirt and jeans.”

Cali Tucker.

Fred Morledge at PhotoFM.com

Nonetheless, in the music video for “Country Couture,” premiering exclusively on PEOPLE, Tucker ditches her jeans.

“I wore 32 different outfits,” laughs Tucker, whose mom and famous musician LaCosta Tucker has appeared in every one of her music videos so far. “It was crazy having to organize all that. But it was cool because I got to wear a lot of my mom’s vintage dresses and a lot of the dresses I wore when I was on the pageant.”

“Country Couture” also showcases Tucker’s undeniable sense of humor.

“I don’t take myself seriously at all,” he admits with a laugh. “I think there are a lot of beautiful, serious, talented ladies who rely on beauty and cuteness. And then I really want to rely on comedy.”

Tanya Tucker, Patty Loveless and songwriter Bob McDill are inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame

Cali Tucker.

Fred Morledge at PhotoFM.com

It’s a mix of traits that she will always share with her famous aunt.

“She does her thing and we respect her for it,” Tucker says. “And we love her for that. And honestly, I know she respects all different kinds of music and styles, but her core is real traditional country music. So I kind of wonder if my stuff is too pop for her? I’m almost afraid to ask! But she loves me .”

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Source: HIS Education