Why there is no single answer
This was not a 1967 milestone, and this article does not name a specific first winner, because the record depends on which version of the award is meant. Country music was recognised by the Grammys from early in the awards’ history, but the separate women’s vocal category was created a few years into the 1960s and was later renamed, adjusted and eventually merged into a combined solo award. A claim about “the first” winner is only as reliable as the definition of the category behind it, and the definitions changed.
What can be said safely is that women were a central part of country music in the 1960s and that the Grammy categories gradually made room for them.
How country entered the Grammys
Country music was present at the very first ceremony in 1959, in the form of broad country and western recognition. In those early years the awards tended to recognise a record or a performance in general terms rather than splitting by the gender of the singer.
In the middle of the 1960s the Academy moved toward more specific categories, including separate vocal awards for women and men in country music. The naming was long-winded and was revised more than once, with wording that varied between “country and western” and “country” and between “vocal performance” and “solo vocal performance”. Because the title shifted, summaries written decades later sometimes apply today’s wording to earlier winners, which is one reason online lists disagree.
Women in country music in the 1960s
The 1960s were an important decade for women in country music, and the Grammy categories were arriving as the decade’s leading women were becoming widely known.
Patsy Cline. Cline’s smooth, pop-influenced voice made her one of the most influential singers of the early 1960s. She died in a plane crash in March 1963, and her recordings, including “Crazy” and “I Fall to Pieces”, remained popular long afterwards. Her early death meant that she was not around for the later development of the awards, but her influence on female singers is regularly noted.
Loretta Lynn. Lynn became a leading voice for working-class women in country music through songs that dealt with marriage, motherhood and hardship in plain language. Her mid-1960s records, such as “Don’t Come Home A-Drinkin’”, established her as a star, and she went on to a long career.
Tammy Wynette. Wynette’s first hit records came in 1967, and she became closely associated with songs about relationships and emotional strain. “Stand by Your Man”, released in 1968, became her signature song, and it too belongs to 1968 rather than 1967.
These three women are often grouped together as the defining women of the decade, though each had a distinct style and audience.
What was happening in country in 1967
The country charts of 1967 were a mix of the polished “Nashville Sound” and a more traditional, honky-tonk approach. Women were visible on both sides of that divide. The year also saw the arrival of new female voices alongside established ones, and the line between country and pop was blurry, as it often is.
The pop charts of 1967 were occasionally shaped by country-flavoured storytelling too. Bobbie Gentry’s “Ode to Billie Joe”, a Southern narrative song that was a hit in the summer of 1967, is a good example of how country, folk and pop influences mixed. Gentry is usually described as a pop and country crossover artist, and her case shows why categories could be hard to apply.
How the category changed
The structure of the women’s country vocal award shifted over the decades in several ways:
- The title was adjusted several times, as the Academy altered how it described country music and vocal performances.
- At times, separate awards were given for solo women, solo men and duos or groups, and the boundaries between them were redrawn.
- In the early 2010s the Academy simplified its structure and merged many gender-specific awards into single solo categories, so the women-only country vocal award no longer exists in the same form.
Because the category has ended, the question of the first winner is partly a historical one: it concerns a specific award that existed for a particular period.
Why winners in this category are hard to compare
There is another difficulty in comparing winners across decades. In the 1960s, voters were drawn from the recording industry. In later decades the Academy’s membership broadened, and the methods for choosing winners were revised. Winners from different eras therefore reflect different electorates and different definitions of the genre.
For readers who want to find out who first won the women’s country vocal award, the most reliable approach is to consult the Recording Academy’s own historical database, which lists each year’s winners by official category name. This article leaves the specific name out on purpose, since the focus here is on the shape of the history rather than a single fact that is easily misstated.
A fair summary
Country music had a place at the Grammys from the start. A women’s vocal award for country was introduced in the mid-1960s and was changed several times before it was merged. Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn and Tammy Wynette stand for a decade in which women moved from the edges of country towards its centre, and the Grammy category is one small way of tracing that change. The wider music scene of the time was changing as well: the Monterey Pop Festival of June 1967 showcased rock and soul, while rock and folk musicians such as Bob Dylan were recording in Nashville, a sign that the boundaries between genres were softening.