“You are Loved”: Carly Pearce Shares the Inspiration Behind Her Powerful New Song, ‘Church Girl’

Ahead of releasing her powerful new song, ‘Church Girl’, today (January 23rd, 2026), Carly Pearce explains to Holler the message she hopes fans take from the faith-based ode.

The track finds Pearce singing reassuringly to a young woman who believes in God and Jesus, but struggles with a sense of guilt and judgement from others due to her way of life not conforming to what a traditional “model“ Christian lifestyle looks like.

The ‘I Hope You're Happy Now’ singer-songwriter croons warmly, “So, you like to get high / When you talk to Jesus / So, you love who you love / And you go out on the weekends / So, you drink, and you think for yourself / That don’t mean you’ll go to hell / When you leave this world / Just ‘cause you heard it in church, girl”.

It's an important cri-de-coeur, and one that will no doubt strike a chord with many who are passionate about their spirituality, yet sometimes feel unwelcome by members of the Christian community. This can foster an unhealthy sense of religious perfectionism and intolerance, with begins to overshadow the message of universal love and forgiveness that Jesus preaches in the Bible.

Speaking to Holler, Pearce underlines why, on a personal level, this felt like the right time to release this message of compassion into the world, “I'm at a place in my career where I feel like I've touched on a lot of bold topics, but there's also a lot more to my story, and a lot more things that are important to me, other than just relationships. I've lived a very public life, and I've gone through a lot of things that I was navigating in the moment, both in front of people and behind the scenes”.

Pearce expands on her own faith journey, “What I have learned over the last several years is, when people feel something with my music, and they're coming to my shows, I see their pain, I see their confusion, I see their journey. I see that they're in the middle of it, and I think that growing up being a Christian...I've been a Christian my whole life. I'm very, very proud of my Christianity”.

The Kentucky native stresses that, whatever walks of life her fans might come from, she is keen for her shows to feel like a safe space for all, “I also want people who are on a journey, or are dealing with whatever they're dealing with, to know that no matter where you're at in your spirituality and your Christianity, in your walk of faith, you're welcome at my shows. You are welcome by me. You are loved by me, and I accept and want everybody who listens to this song to feel that”.

Reassurance and love lie at the heart of ‘Church Girl’, but as is often the case with songs that explore faith and religion in a raw, unfiltered way, there will inevitably be some that mistake the message of Pearce's new track as an affront to Christianity.

Pearce delves into thorny topics that spiritually-minded songs often avoid, such as sex before marriage, getting high and the idea that you should “love who you love”. This is what helps to make ‘Church Girl’ such a beacon of light that will serve as a soothing note of comfort for many who feel guilt for any of these reasons.

Pearce has become synonymous for the honesty and candour in her music. But even so, she admits that she sometimes feels trepidation about how her songs will be interpreted - and, crucially, misinterpreted, “Of course, there's fear...I would be lying if I said I didn't want to go into every comment and say, ‘No, but this is what I mean’”.

Pearce pauses, before observing, “But at the end of the day, I feel like we live in a moment in time where people are just angry and they want to find a rebuttal to everything. And at the end of the day, the message that I am spreading is: I am a Christian. I am devout in my faith. I love the Lord. Jesus loved everyone. He accepted everyone”.

The ‘Next Girl’ hitmaker concludes, “I want to be somebody who doesn't judge somebody if, maybe, their journey looks a little different than me, or their walk in their faith looks different than me. I don't want to judge them, because I've been through so many things where I've felt shame and guilt and all these different things in my own life. To me as an artist and as somebody who creates music, I think it is my purpose to bring people together, and I want to look out in a crowd and see so many different people who come together for my music. If they can feel enough in that moment, that's what I care about. And so, if somebody wants to take that and depict that in a negative way, that's on them, that's not on me”.

‘Church Girl’ is the latest taste of Pearce's forthcoming studio album, which is yet to be officially unveiled. The track joins Pearce's previous single, the popular and equally as vulnerable ‘Dream Come True’, as the momentum builds ahead of her next chapter.

As Pearce gears up for a blockbuster world tour, which includes eagerly anticipated shows across Australia, the UK and a headline set at London's Highways Festival 2026, ‘Church Girl’ might not be one of the histrionic or beers-in-the-air moments in her set. But you can rest assured that it'll be one of the most impactful.

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