Kellie Pickler August 9, 2012

Kellie Pickler is everything that’s right about that uniquely modern place where reality and celebrity come together. She is first and foremost a force of nature, a young woman who followed a restless small-town dream to the upper reaches of the music world. She came armed with real talent, for she is a singer who has learned well from idols like Tammy, Patsy, Loretta and Dolly. Still, it takes much more to enter the cultural consciousness as firmly and unmistakably as she has, and Kellie brings more in spades.

It starts with star quality, that undefinable but clearly identifiable trait she possesses in abundance. She combines beauty, wit, humor and guilelessness in a way that has attracted fans from her first days in the national spotlight, and she has proven over and over that there is a great deal of substance under the blond-haired, light-hearted exterior.