If you needed more evidence that the kiss curl is officially back in style, just take a look at Kacey Musgraves's most recent awards show glam.

The Middle of Nowhere singer joined dozens of her fellow country stars in attending the 61st Academy of Country Music Awards in Las Vegas over the weekend. Before taking the stage during the ceremony to perform a song from her new album, Musgraves hit the red carpet wearing a strapless black gown with white floral embellishments from Tanner Fletcher and black pumps. Her glam for the night felt like a nod to Old Hollywood. Adding a pop of color to her nearly all-black ensemble, she wore a creamy, classic red lip color and lined her lips with a deeper burgundy or brown pencil. Her long, dark hair was also lightly curled and styled with a side part and a small section of her curtain bangs brushed up into a kiss curl just above her brows.

The return of the kiss curl and other Old Hollywood era hairstyles on the red carpet circuit has been delightful to witness over the last year. The dramatic swooping hairstyle in particular was all over the red carpet at last spring's Met Gala, and even a year later, it continues to pop up as a style of choice at formal events and premieres. Abbott Elementary creator Quinta Brunson wore a short pixie cut with dramatic curls while attending a Disney event back in April, and before that, Zendaya showed up at the Los Angeles premiere of The Drama with her new bixie cut blown out and styled with a side part and two sleek curls on either side of her face.

To copy Kacey Musgraves's retro look at home, read ahead to shop everything you'll need.

When Kacey Musgraves said, "You can take me out of the country, but you can't take the country out of me," she was talking specifically about her closet. Despite her global success, the star remains true to her Golden, Texas, roots—in the music she writes, as well as the clothing she wears.

The lyric felt particularly top-of-mind on April 17, when the "Deeper Well" singer sat front row at Ralph Lauren's Fall 2025 fashion show in New York City. Other A-list show-goers—such as Anne Hathaway, Naomi Watts, and Sarah Catherine Hook—channeled a posh, professional vibe, in khaki trench coats, neckties, and tweed, but Musgraves didn't waver. Despite the metropolitan venue, she came decked out in her Southern-girl best.

Though she too, sported the brand's streamlined workwear, Musgraves did so with her trademark "Dime Store Cowgirl" flare. She chose a pair of sleek heather gray trousers and a simple white tank top, but was sure to add on plenty of country staples.

As a tribute to her Texan upbringing, Musgraves accessorized with cowboy boots, Western-style statement earrings, and a brown leather belt covered in buckles. As a final touch, she finished with a beige 10-gallon hat that completed her outfit's neutral color story.

Musgraves's country-chic ensemble may have been an outlier among the show's attendees, but she fit right in with the runway models. Staying true to his brand's own equestrian origins, Lauren wove themes of the American West throughout his newest collection.

The designer showed suede suiting and boho ruffled dresses, styled with riding boots and silver jewelry. He also utilized romantic, vintage-inspired fabrics—like plum velvet and lace—to make each look feel like a modern relic of the Regency Era.

This collection made clear that, for both Lauren and Musgraves, the South-Western aesthetic isn't just a passing fad. It's a way of life.

Shop Country-Chic Separates Inspired By Kacey Musgraves

In 2024, it feels delightfully inevitable that Grammy-winning singer Kacey Musgraves would design a Reformation collection heavy on so-called horse girl style. Country—in music and in style—is having what culture critics might call a moment.

Still, a Bowery Hotel party toasting her collection, featuring a crowd dressed in cowboy boots, denim corsets, and buckle bunny studs, is a pleasant surprise for the Deeper Well singer-turned-designer. "I've always thought it was cool, but there was a time when I was a lot younger that I felt like kind of an outsider because of what I wore," Musgraves tells me.

All these years later, she's the last person to gatekeep the yeehaw approach to getting dressed. "I am so f–cking glad to see people catching up and having their own fun moments with it. [Horse girl style] looks good on every single person."

Her Reformation lineup doesn't go as Western as the fringe and rhinestones Musgraves hit the yodeling circuit with as a child in Golden, Texas. But it's clear from the collection that horse girl style is, as Musgraves says "in her bones."

The collection includes everything from on-the-nose equestrian pieces—like knee-high leather riding boots, denim shirting, and vintage hair scarves—to ribbon-sleeved silk dresses and cashmere matching sets for lounging around the estate (or ranch) after a long ride through the rolling hills. Fall plaids and rich shades like crimson and navy are in abundance; so are sweet touches of lace and bows. It's English countryside gone ever so slightly country—curated by someone who clearly knows her way around a stable and a shop-worthy linesheet. Prices are all relatively affordable, with most pieces retailing under $200. There's also a bit of her DNA in the packaging: Musgraves's sister, Kelly Christine Sutton, photographed the campaign on location in the Cotswolds.

There are a few pieces that bring horse girl flair to even broader 2024 trends, like a plaid matching set comprised of a strapless top and pedal pushers. "Capri pants are back! Peplum is back!" Musgraves laughs. There are also two ways to try a denim-on-denim outfit in the vein of Beyoncé, Bella Hadid, and Musgraves herself: either a denim, tie-front corset top or an oversize denim shirt, both paired to wide-leg jeans in various washes. Musgraves also designed pointy-toed denim boots for a full-on commitment to the look.

It's genuine to how she dresses: "I will always be a fan of a Canadian Tuxedo," she says.

From a puff-sleeve mini dress known as the "Bunny" to her Cotswolds plaid overcoat, don't be surprised to see Musgraves wearing these pieces on her Deeper Well tour. "Seriously, I approached this much like when I am putting together a tour. I want to put together a tour that I would personally want to go see. This is a line of clothing that I would personally wear and I would never create something that I wouldn't personally stand behind first."

Odds are, most women getting in touch with their inner rodeo queen won't be wearing these pieces on a ranch or a rolling countryside estate. So Mugraves worked closely with the Reformation team to give the silk dresses and denim some real-world viability (with a heavy emphasis on recycled materials—Musgraves is a sustainability girl, too).

In the process, "I learned that I do actually know a lot more about tailoring than I thought that I did," she says. She mentions she'd gone back and forth with Reformation team on the tiniest details to get each piece right—whether adding a hook and eye closure here or changing the color of a stitch there.

"Getting into those details was really fun: Like, what makes a garment look good on everyone's body, the proportions that are important, the fabrics. I approached this much like I approach all creative endeavors, I just put my whole self into it," she explains.

Her whole self is evident in the lineup's range. It's cohesive, but it's not one-note. The underlying message? "There is no wrong way to be a horse girl," Musgraves says. "You can be an English lady. You can be a Western lady, and this collection does lean a little bit more into the equestrian English world. My heart will always be rooted in the Western community, but I love so many different things."

To paraphrase her song "Dime Store Cowgirl," you can take Kacey to a different kind of country, but you'll never take the country—or the horse girl—out of her.

Kacey Musgraves x Reformation is now available online and in Reformation stores.

The terms “wardrobe malfunction” and “celebrity” are relatively simpatico, and, in terms of wardrobe malfunctions, the one Kacey Musgraves suffered this weekend on Saturday Night Live is pretty doggone minor.

Musgraves was the show’s musical guest Saturday night alongside host Sydney Sweeney, and took to X (the platform formerly known as Twitter) yesterday to reveal that she forgot to remove a clip from her hair before taking the stage with Sweeney and the SNL cast members to close Saturday’s show. Musgraves reposted a photo of herself during the closing credits, wearing a maxi denim dress with a thigh-high slit and knee-high boots; she wore a white clip to pin back her hair as an accessory. The clip appeared to be a part of Musgraves’ look, but Page Six reports “she seemed horrified” with the mistakenly left in clip, writing “The clip. I forgot to remove the clip.” 

According to Page Six, “Musgraves’ stylist seemingly left the clip in the Grammy winner’s hair as she rushed onstage to thank viewers for watching the show alongside Sweeney and guest star Glen Powell.” The clip is barely noticeable until Musgraves turns to hug Sweeney as the credits begin to roll.

Saturday night was Musgraves’ SNL debut; she performed “Deeper Well” and “Too Good to Be True” off of her forthcoming record, also called Deeper Well, which drops March 15. “This new album is an honest excavation of my own transformation the last few years,” she said of the record. “I’m emerging more centered, grounded, and trusting of myself than ever—and I knew that I wanted to create a multi-sensorial experience that cultivates self-discovery and our connection to the natural world."

She added “It’s a collection of songs I hold very dear to my heart. I hope it makes a home in all of your hearts, too.”

Kacey Musgraves is now a single woman, The Daily Mail reports, as she and poet boyfriend Cole Schafer have apparently parted ways after a two-year relationship. The singer began dating Schafer about a year after her divorce from fellow country music artist Ruston Kelly was finalized.

The two have been apart for about a month, the outlet reports, and have unfollowed one another on Instagram, though they still have photos of one another on their accounts.

Not long after their romance began in June 2021, Musgraves told The New York Times they first met when they spotted one another in a packed restaurant. “He did not know who I was, which I loved,” Musgraves said. By Musgraves’ birthday that August, Schafer took to Instagram to pay tribute to his new girlfriend: “Here’s to you looking to your right when you stepped into F***,” he wrote in the post, which included a photo of them in bed together. “Here’s to you writing me back. Here’s to your jawline that chaps my lips and your hair I can’t keep my hands out of. Here’s to your aesthetic and your art being a close second to your heart.”

Musgraves was equally as effusive when she paid tribute to him for his birthday this past January. She wrote of “the laughs and adventures, deep talks, ego checks, wise advice, forehead kisses, the books you recommend, your late night ‘oh I just whipped this up’ and somehow it’s extremely gourmet pasta (like, actually Michelin star) situations, the gorgeous way you observe the world and the words that follow. And mostly your unabashed, full-throttle vulnerability which is easily the sexiest thing about you.”

Throughout their relationship—as is par for the course when one partner is a singer-songwriter and the other is a poet—the two took to social media and used ample words to describe their affection for one another. Last year, Schafer called Musgraves “the most naturally gifted human I’ve been around” after Musgraves sold out Madison Square Garden. “I’ve read about artists vomiting in dimly lit bathroom stalls prior to pulling themselves on stage,” he wrote. “And, while I think there is something strangely romantic about this kind of torture, Kace just sort of floats around backstage like a butterfly that can’t make up its mind where it wants to land. She’ll jump on her hover board. She’ll send me something funny she finds on Instagram. She’ll eat a good dinner. She’ll get onto her dog, Pepper, for raising hell. She’ll laugh her a** off with Mo and Gio as they make art of her make-up and hair. She’ll do her vocal warm-ups, sometimes. Then, come 9:25 p.m., she’ll down a shot of tequila to kill whatever butterflies are flapping in her stomach, she’ll check her teeth for spinach and then she’ll walk up the stairs and disappear behind a black veil, where there is silence for a breath or two and then, a deafening roar.”

The last time Musgraves was going through a split publicly, when she split from Kelly, she vulnerably opened up to Rolling Stone the year after her divorce about how it “just simply didn’t work out” with him. “It’s nothing more than that,” she said. “It’s two people who love each other so much, but for so many reasons, it just didn’t work. I mean, seasons change. Our season changed.”

She added, introspectively, “I think I live best by myself. I think it’s okay to realize that.”

Pretty sure it was Carrie Fisher who said “Take your broken heart. Make it into art.” Wishing everyone peace.

If you're feeling burnt out, down, or stressed about life in general, never underestimate the power of a great sad song. Sure, it may feel counterintuitive, but some of the best slow, emotional tracks allow us to acknowledge our feelings—a painful but necessary step in the right direction. Here are 41 of them to listen to as you stare plaintively out of a bus/car/train/home office window.

If you’re thinking about suicide, are worried about a friend or loved one, or would like emotional support, the Lifeline network is available 24/7 across the United States. Call 1-800-273-8255.

"16 Carriages" by Beyoncé

Beyoncé went country in 2024, tapping into her Texas upbringing and leaning into the genre’s expert storytelling on her record Cowboy Carter. The opening track explores a loss of innocence at a young age, diving into how frightening that can be and how much resilience it takes. With the amount of emotion relayed by her soulful delivery, she makes evident how spending nearly her life in the spotlight has been a dream come true, but comes at a cost. The compelling rootsy instrumentation that crescendos at the song’s end only adds to its emotionality

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"20 Something" - SZA

Is there anything scarier than being in your 20s? We don’t think so, and SZA doesn’t either. As she says to all 20somethings out there, good luck and god bless.

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"Appointments" - Julien Baker

So beautiful, so emotional, you'll find yourself welling up (at the very least). It's Julien Baker, after all.

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"Asleep" - The Smiths

The Smiths’ “Asleep” is a lullaby—but it’ll bring you to tears, not to sleep. “Sing me to sleep / I don't want to wake up on my own anymore,” Morissey sings, lamenting about loneliness, how the weight of the world can be too much sometimes, and suicidal ideation. The song’s narrator greatly expresses a loss of hope, and resolves that the only solution for pain is through death, expressing, “There is another world / There is a better world / Well, there must be,” before repeating, “Bye,” in the final verses. It’s extremely solemn but a song that has touched many Smiths fans; its reach is even depicted in the book/film The Perks of Being a Wallflower, as it's the main character Charlie’s favorite song.

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"Bad Religion" - Frank Ocean

"It's a bad religion to be in love with someone who could never love you." You really feel for Frank Ocean as he sings about struggling with his sexuality, though the sense of impossibility is much more pervasive than that.

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"Beyond" - Leon Bridges

This song is so sweet. The music video is so sweet. Leon Bridges is so sweet. Just everything about this song is so sweet. "Beyond" is about dating someone and feeling that emotion of knowing that it's beyond any other feeling you have felt for someone before.

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"Blackberry Stone" - Laura Marling

"I'd be sad that I never held your hand as you were lowered / But I'd understand that I'd never let it go." This song cuts to the chase quickly, but you'll enjoy it as you bleed out.

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"Call Your Mom" - Noah Kahan

A song about being there for a loved one struggling with mental health issues, “Call Your Mom” is a reminder of the importance of reaching out, and as Noah puts it, “All lights turned off can be turned on.”

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"cowboy like me" - Taylor Swift 

Countless Taylor Swift songs can bring a range of emotions, from tearing up to sobbing. If we had to pick just one for when you're trying to unwind from a draining week and are not in the mood to do anything, "Cowboy Like Me" is perfect bubble bath music.

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"Dreaming of You" - Selena Quintanilla

You're going to need several boxes of tissues for this one. The '90s mid-tempo jam is about longing for your beloved, but its heartbreak factor multiplies times a million when you realize that it was one of the last songs Selena recorded before her tragic passing in 1995.

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"Fourth of July" - Sufjan Stevens

This song off Sufjan Stevens’ acclaimed album Carrie & Lowell, largely about his mother’s death and her relationship with her second husband, details the final conversation the indie-folk musician had with his mom on her deathbed. Dying from stomach cancer, the two express immense love for one another, while Stevens imagines being able to resuscitate her. “Did you get enough love, my little dove? / Why do you cry?” Stevens repeats as his mother’s last words to him, speaking to how boundless the warmth of their relationship is.

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"From the Dining Table" - Harry Styles

This song is so intimate we almost feel guilty listening to it. "Why won't you ever say what you want to say? Even my phone misses your call, by the way." For a heart-shattering listen, we recommend using headphones.

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"hope is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have, but i have it" - Lana Del Rey

You can't create a sad songs list without a Lana Del Rey song... or five. "Hope Is a Dangerous Thing for a Woman Like Me to Have" was one of the first singles from her album, Norman Fucking Rockwell—a heartbreakingly beautiful reminder that sometimes hope is all we have.

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"How to Disappear Completely" - Radiohead

This is a song so melancholy that you'll feel like you're an astronaut who's become untethered from the space station. The line most likely to make you say "same:" "I’m not here / This isn’t happening."

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"Hurt" - Nine Inch Nails

The true meaning behind this 1994 song has been disputed over the years, with its lyrics seemingly referring to self-harm, heroin addiction, and general feelings surrounding succumbing to sadness. Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor sings in almost a whisper and the track carries a haunting guitar before it devolves into fuzzed-out, dizzying guitars, essentially drowning out his pleas. The industrial rock instrumentation and production further feed into the narrator’s all-consuming pain, as if it can’t be managed. Years later in 2002, Johnny Cash released a cover of “Hurt,” transforming it into a sobering outlaw country song that many also love (and have mistaken as an original).

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"I Have Nothing" - Whitney Houston 

The third single from the hit film Bodyguard is right up there in the top five songs to sing at the top of your lungs in the shower. You won't be able to tell whether it's tears or water from the shower head cascading down your cheeks, but it doesn't really matter does it?

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"I'll Never Love Again" - Lady Gaga

Even if you didn't see the ultimate tearjerker A Star Is Born, you can infer the emotional complexities of the song from the title.

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"Landslide" - Fleetwood Mac 

"Landslide" never fails to make us think about how quickly life passes by while reminding us to appreciate every moment—even during the hard times.

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"Last Words of a Shooting Star" - Mitski

Many fans look to Mitski for her poetic lyricism about sadness and loneliness, finding solace in it, and that’s existed throughout her discography. “Last Words of a Shooting Star” is an early song from 2014’s Bury Me at Makeout Creek and an indie folk-rock ballad that imagines a narrator approaching the end of their life on a crashing plane, imagining how they’d like to be remembered. It’s wrapped up in heartbreaking complexities, though, because the narrator doesn’t even believe the things about themself that they’d like others to recognize, and wonders whether they lived to the fullest.

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"Liability" - Lorde

Say hello to the magnum opus of Lorde's second studio album, Melodrama. You feel her heart (and yours simultaneously) being ripped out in every single line. It makes you want to stick it to anybody who thought you were "too much" for them. Good cry guaranteed.

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"Lost Ones" - J.Cole

J.Cole is a skilled storyteller, and in "Lost Ones," he tells the story of a couple who is forced to confront their respective traumas when faced with a major hurdle in their relationship. Taking on the perspective of both the man and the woman in each verse, the song gradually gets sadder and sadder until you realize that you've been weeping for a full four minutes and 23 seconds.

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"My Heart Will Go On" - Céline Dion

"My Heart Will Go On" from the classic movie Titanic never fails to strike a chord, mainly because all we can think about is Rose letting go of Jack.

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"Nothing's Gonna Hurt You Baby" - Cigarettes After Sex

"Nothing's Gonna Hurt You Baby" is one of those songs that can transport you to somewhere else in an instant. We still can't decide if the song or the YouTube comment section of the video is more heartwarming.

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"Past Life" - Maggie Rogers

Maggie Rogers' "Past Life" is a far departure from some of her breakout hits like "Fallingwater" and "On + Off." It's a clear reflection of who she was, and who she's becoming—something we should all make room for every once in a while.

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"Punisher" - Phoebe Bridgers

When you need a moment to sit with your feelings, allow Phoebe Bridgers's incredibly soothing voice in "Punisher" to help you process your emotions.

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"Purple Rain" - Prince

Want to make everyone at karaoke cry? This epic ballad will do the trick. Between Prince's powerful guitar solo and the dreamy lyrics (which The Purple One so poetically described as the "end of the world and being with the one you love"), there won't be a dry eye in the house.

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"Re: Stacks" - Bon Iver

This sad, reflective song explores a love of running cold and having to sit with what was lost. It may sound very relaxing but it's also very emotional.

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"Righteous" - Juice WRLD

What makes this song incredibly sad isn't solely the fact that Juice WRLD is no longer with us, but that his lyrics alluded to his death. "Over ice, I'm freezing / Beautiful eyes, deceiving / We may die this evening / Coughing, wheezing, bleeding."

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"The River" - Joni Mitchell

This classic off the iconic album Blue isn’t a Christmas song, but it is set around Christmastime, and fully leans into how, no matter how spirited the holiday season is, it can make you feel a little bit down. That’s especially the case as Mitchell mines what led to a breakup, particularly looking inward at how one’s own shortcomings contributed. “I wish I had a river / I could skate away on,” she repeats—a sentiment that will freeze over and ring true in anyone with escapist tendencies’ memory.

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"Roman Candle" - Elliott Smith

Much of the late, great singer-songwriter and emo pioneer Elliott Smith’s discography is full of heartbreaking music. “Roman Candle” is among the most tragic, as the musician reflects on how his abusive stepfather mistreated him and his complicated feelings around wanting to “hurt him” and “give him pain.” Poetically, he equates himself to a Roman candle, a firework known for causing accidents, over a frantic, shakey guitar to relay how unstable he feels.

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"The Scientist" - Coldplay

We're officially drafting a petition to classify "Coldplay" as the Original Sad Song™ in the dictionary.

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"Slow Burn" - Kacey Musgraves

Golden Hour may have won four Grammys, but "Slow Burn" deserves 100 more—simply for every tear we've shed listening to it and allowing ourselves to process us emotions.

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"Somebody Else" - The 1975

"I don't want your body, but I hate to think about you with somebody else. Our love has gone cold. You're intertwining your soul with somebody else." A lyric like no other, for a sad-but-happy-sounding song like no other.

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"traitor" - Olivia Rodrigo 

If you're going through a heartbreak, Olivia Rodrigo's Sour is incredibly cathartic, but "traitor" especially hits if any emotional cheating was involved. Sending you love!

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"To Build a Home" - The Cinematic Orchestra

Cue the song that plays during every sad, devastating, emotional, or brutal moment in a movie. Nevertheless, it gets the job done.

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"Transatlanticism" - Death Cab for Cutie

The title track from indie rock icons Death Cab for Cutie’s breakout 2003 album equates the Atlantic Ocean to a long-distance relationship. Ben Gibbard’s lull about feeling further and further from his lover haunts, mirroring the everpresent loneliness that comes from being away from the one you love. “I need you so much closer,” he repeats before evolving into, “So come on”—which is sure to inspire tears, as it can be interpreted as desperation, disbelief, or hopefulness.

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"Try Sleeping With a Broken Heart" - Alicia Keys

More than 10 years after its release, this heartbreaking Alicia Keys song has rightfully earned its place on every sad girl™'s "songs to cry to" playlist.

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"we can’t be friends (wait for your love)" - Ariana Grande

This may be one of Ariana Grande’s hits of 2024 and a synth-pop bop at that, but lyrically, it’s a bittersweet breakup song that’ll make you sniffle. The pop superstar relays the fallout of a relationship (speculated to be her marriage to Dalton Gomez) and how ultimately they can’t remain friends, even though she wishes they could be. To add to the sadness here, the music video (like the title the song is off) is inspired by the 2004 film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which imagines a couple going through a procedure to wipe their memories of one another.

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"when the party's over" - Billie Eilish 

When the party's over? More like when the crying sesh is over.

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"When We Were Young" - Adele

Adele has perfected the art of the sad song. "You still look like a movie / You still sound like a song / My God, this reminds me of when we were young." Excuse us while we wipe away a tear.

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"Wonderful Tonight" - Eric Clapton

Eric Clapton knew what he was doing when he wrote this song for '60s icon Pattie Boyd. "I feel wonderful because I see the love light in your eyes / And the wonder of it all is that you just don't realize how much I love you." Swoon.

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