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Carly Pearce is celebrating her birthday with a “surprise” as she teases a new chapter in her career.
Pearce, who turns 36 on Friday (April 24), will release a new song and music video at midnight ET, she confirmed on Thursday (April 23). The Grammy-winning country star shared, “I wanted to give y’all a little something early.” She shared a snippet of “You Can Have Him” on Instagram: “If he’s looking at you that way with a look on his face/ That says ‘I could whisk you away,’ go get at him/ If you can take him, you can have him/ If you make him want to flirt in your denim mini skirt/ And he’s working up the nerve/ If it’s looking like he loves you, you should ask him/ If you can take him, you can have him.”
“You Can Have Him” will follow “If I Don’t Leave I’m Gonna Stay,” a steamy duet with country star Riley Green. The two artists released the collaboration last month, and Pearce recently surprised the arena audience at Green’s headlining concert in Nashville, Tennessee, where they performed the ballad live. Before that, Pearce released “Church Girl,” which she hopes, “meets you wherever you are and gives you a sense of love and acceptance, and not judgement,” and “Dream Come True,” a vulnerable ballad “about the sacrifices we make when chasing our dreams.”
“It’s done. It’s done,” Pearce confirmed when Senior Music Editor Joseph Hudak asked about the singer-songwriter’s fifth studio record on a recent episode of Rolling Stone’s Nashville Now podcast. “What ‘Dream Come True’ did for me is it opened the door for me to really return to the origin of music for me, which is Appalachian, classic country, Loretta Lynn meets The Judds meets Alison Krauss. You know, that’s where I grew up. I worked with a producer that I’ve known for a long time but it’s the first time he’s produced me. His name’s Ben West. And he just captured, to me, the essence of who I am. I kept going back to 29 because I feel 29 was me at my core. To me, this feels like 29: Part Two. And there’s a lot of layers to me that I don’t think people — I think they just assume, ‘oh, she’s the heartbreak singer,’ or ‘oh, she sings about divorce.’ Yeah, I do. But I also sing about a lot of things that women go through. …Those parts of your story, they’re never gone. I don’t want to shy away from my story,” Pearce added later. “I’m evolving.”
Green and Pearce are part of the star-studded lineup of the 2026 iHeartCountry Festival, along with Luke Bryan, Kane Brown, Parker McCollum, Shaboozey, Dylan Scott, Russell Dickerson, Gretchen Wilson, Lauren Alaina and Chase Matthew, plus special guest George Birge. iHeartRadio's Bobby Bones is returning as the 2026 iHeartCountry Festival’s host. The show will take place on May 2 at Moody Center in Austin, Texas. Tickets to the show are available on Ticketmaster.com. Fans across the country will be able to catch all the action as the 2026 iHeartCountry Festival will be broadcast live across iHeartCountry stations nationwide and the free iHeartRadio app on Saturday, May 2nd at 8pm ET/5pm PT (7pm CT).