How Hunter Hayes Scored a GRAMMY Debut for New Single 'Invisible'
By Courtney E. Smith
Between Jay and Bey's on-stage honeymoon and the Mackledonna marriage, rising country star Hunter Hayes had a big GRAMMY moment tonight. Nominated this year for Best Country Song, Hayes got to do something very few artists have ever done: debut a brand new song on the telecast. The performance of "Invisible," a new piano ballad off his forthcoming second album, was accompanied by visuals of quotes of affirmation from the likes of John Lennon, Steve Jobs and Lady Gaga.
Related: Radio.com's Complete GRAMMYs Coverage
Radio.com sat down with Hayes in L.A. at the GRAMMY Museum during GRAMMY weekend to discuss the song's touching inspiration and how he came to debut it in such a prestigious setting.
"'Invisible' is a totally new concept for me," Hayes explained. "I always write about something pretty personal, [but] this sets a new standard for me. I didn't go in to write this song necessarily, I went in to write something else. [Songwriters] Bonnie Baker, Katrina Elam and I ended up writing about how we all, in different ways, can relate to the message of being an outcast, being misunderstood, being... essentially bullied. I say that very carefully because I know there's a lot of people who go through that on a much larger scale. In whatever way I can relate to it, the song is about that. It's about disappearing among the crowd, not having a place to fit in, being different you know? Being a music geek in high school, middle school, [and] now, I've just now gotten comfortable with the fact that I can call myself a geek and be proud of it."
