Country music’s next great hope just made her opening statement a little louder. Out today via The Core Records, Baylee Lynn’s Heart On My Sleeve (Expanded Edition) takes the 18-year-old Tennessee native’s already-buzzy debut EP and adds one more arrow to the quiver: “That’s What I’ll Be,” the bittersweet ballad first heard on the star-studded Nobody Wants This Season 2: The Soundtrack.

Stream Heart On My Sleeve (Expanded Edition) on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/search/Baylee%20Lynn%20Heart%20On%20My%20Sleeve

If you’ve been paying attention to Music Row over the past year, you already know the trajectory. Baylee Lynn arrived in summer 2025 with “Cautiously Optimistic,” a confessional, country-pop charmer that promptly topped Billboard’s new music poll with 64 percent of the vote — beating out, among others, Sabrina Carpenter. Billboard’s Friday Music Guide compared the track’s sensibility to “the turn-of-the-century country-pop stylings of Faith Hill and the Chicks.” Not bad for a debut single.

What followed was a streak that read like a veteran’s playbook: the sassy “John, Dear,” the self-worth anthem “Heart On My Sleeve,” the swaggering “Heard That,” and the gut-punch unrequited-love ballad “You Didn’t Love Me.” Then came a 14-date North American run supporting viral sensation Maddox Batson, where Baylee proved she’s as magnetic on stage as she is on tape.

“That’s What I’ll Be,” the new addition anchoring the Expanded Edition, leans into everything that makes Baylee Lynn a singular young voice in country. Co-written by Baylee alongside Jenna Shuffler, GRAMMY-nominated producer AJ Pruis (Megan Moroney, Maddie & Tae), and Mia Mantia, the song unfolds as a full-hearted message of reassurance to anyone weathering a hard season.

“As soon as we wrote ‘That’s What I’ll Be,’ I knew that the world needed to hear it,” Baylee says. “When you’re going through a hard time, sometimes all you need to help you through is to hear that everything’s going to be okay. One of the things I love most about the lyrics is that they could be for anyone — a friend, a family member, a romantic partner, or anyone else you really care about.”

Her inclusion on Nobody Wants This Season 2: The Soundtrack put her shoulder-to-shoulder with labelmates Just Jayne plus country heavyweights Ella Langley and Kacey Musgraves — rarefied air for an artist just one EP deep.

The closing track, piano-led “Counting Tiles,” is the kind of song that stops a room. Baylee documents the surreal aftermath of being blindsided by a breakup — coping, quite literally, by counting tiles on a bathroom floor — before the bridge erupts into a devastating swell that earns every second of its build.

Tracklist — Heart On My Sleeve (Expanded Edition):
1. That’s What I’ll Be
2. Cautiously Optimistic
3. John, Dear
4. Heart On My Sleeve
5. Heard That
6. You Didn’t Love Me
7. Counting Tiles

Raised in the small town of Greeneville, Tennessee, Baylee taught herself guitar at six, picked up piano shortly after, and wrote her first song at 13 — pulling threads from the Dolly Parton songbook she grew up on. Now Nashville-based and unmistakably on the rise, she’s making good on every bit of early hype.

Heart On My Sleeve (Expanded Edition) is out now. Hit play, and don’t be surprised when “That’s What I’ll Be” is the one you can’t shake.