Sophia Michaels
Kane Brown’s latest single, “Grand,” is his most of-the-moment yet, a fast-paced pop blast that calls to mind Post Malone and steps away from the country roots he comes from. On Sunday, the Nashville star performed the hit at the 2022 VMAs.
“People told him he wasn’t country enough,” Jack Harlow said, introducing the singer, before listing the musician’s accomplishments. “Now he can make whatever type of music he damn well pleases.”
In front of a live audience in nearby Fort Lee, New Jersey, while wearing a beige vest and coordinated brown-and-black pants, Brown performed his single on a neon light-decorated stage.
“Grand” appears on Brown’s upcoming album Different Man, out Sept. 9. His appearance at the Video Music Awards made a bit of MTV history, too: He became the first male country artist to perform at the VMAs. (Kacey Musgraves made her VMAs debut in 2021, and Taylor Swift has also performed at the show in the past.)
Brown’s Different Man album is the follow-up to 2018’s Experiment, which included hits like “Heaven” and “Lose It.” His most recent country music Number One was “Like I Love Country Music.”
In a 2018 interview with Rolling Stone, Brown said he sometimes felt like a country-music outsider.
“If you come to my shows, there’s all kinds of different races, all kinds of different people. Now, I feel accepted. I still feel like an outcast on the inside, but it doesn’t bother me anymore, at all,” he said. “It kind of feels cool to be the outsider.”
