Former American Idol finalist Emmy Russell’s life looks completely different from a year ago. First of all, the granddaughter of late country legend Loretta Lynn has nearly 200,00 Instagram followers after narrowly missing the top 3. Oh, yeah—and she’s a married mother now. Russell, 26, welcomed her first child, a daughter, with husband Tyler Ward earlier this year. As the “Redemption” singer balances music and motherhood, she sat down with People magazine to reveal her daughter’s name and introduce her latest song, “London Bridges.”
‘American Idol’ Star Shares Her Daughter’s Name
Shortly after her time on American Idol ended, Emmy Russell learned she was pregnant. “I was sitting in my bed, as weird as this sounds, I literally heard, I felt like I heard God tell me, ‘Emmy, you’re pregnant, and your baby is Radiant,’” she told People. “And I just heard the name Radiant. And so I was like, ‘Okay, well…’ And I felt the color pink.”
Nine months later, Russell gave birth to a daughter, Taylor Raydiant Ward. The little one is named for her dad, Tyler Ward, a YouTube star turned singer-songwriter.
“We went with Taylor Ray for Tyler Ray, because she looks very similar and I’m freaking out,” Ward, 40, told People. “It’s amazing.”
Their New Song, “London Bridges,” Is Out Now
Just one month later, the first-time parents are releasing their collaboration “London Bridges,” written for them by a friend at Ward’s company, Song House. (The pair met through Song House, a collective of songwriters based out of downtown Nashville.)
“[We] were at a writing camp, and the prompt was, ‘how to make a grown man cry,’” Ward said. “And so they wrote this song, surprising me and Emmy. They came out like, ‘Hey, we think you’ll like this.’ And they played it, and I couldn’t get enough. I teared up so much, to where it felt like our song.”
As Emmy Russell and Tyler Ward gazed down at their newborn, the American Idol finalist and her husband knew they had to record the song.
“There was just such magic that it was like, ‘Let’s put it out, and maybe we’ll have a duet and maybe we’ll be a band. And we have all these other songs, maybe we’ll start releasing music as a duet,” Ward said. “And the whole floodgates opened of ideas.”
