‘Real Country’ Contestant Jamie Floyd Goes From Waitressing to TV Stage

Jamie Floyd won $10,000 on the latest episode of Real Country and a chance to compete in the finale, airing Tuesday night, Dec. 11. Whether she wins or loses (which Floyd knows but cannot yet reveal), the Florida native says the chance to appear on the reality TV talent show already makes her feel like a champion.

“Earlier this year, I had worked really hard to get a publishing deal,” Floyd told PopCulture.com. “I get dropped. Two weeks later, I get a call from Real Country that they’re doing this new television show, based on only country music, and that Jake Owen has invited me personally to sing my music on this show. It was such an amazing moment, because I felt like my whole life and career, it was falling apart, and I had to start over. And then Jake Owen and Real Country came in and gave me the greatest shot anybody has ever given me in my 20 years here in Nashville.”

Floyd is certainly no stranger to the music industry. In fact, she’s already an award-winning songwriter, who earned the respect of Owen long before Real Country.

“I had performed, and he saw a recording of me performing, and then it kind of went deeper into the process of everybody getting to know each other,” Floyd recalled. “He had known of my songwriting too, because I’m the Grammy-nominated waitress on the show. I wrote a song called ‘The Blade,’ which was the title track of Ashley Monroe‘s record, and she sings it as a duet with Miranda Lambert.”

The Blade earned a Grammy nomination, for Best Country Album, but it wasn’t until Owen believed in Floyd enough to put her on Real Country that she really felt validated for her talent.

“I’ve been fighting really hard,” insisted Floyd. “I’d been waiting tables when I got that Grammy nomination, when Ashley cut my song. I was my own publisher, and so Jake had kind of been aware of some of my songwriting. And so, for him to invite me on the show has already changed my life.”

Floyd writes during the day, and waits tables at a high-end Nashville restaurant at night, but she’s more than ready to just focus on her music.

“I’ve been so grateful for it, and it got me to where I am,” Floyd said of working as a server. “It gave me the ability to write full-time during the day, and pursue and run with this dream. But I’m ready to step into being just an artist, just a songwriter, and just following my heart all the way into that full-time.”

Regardless of who is declared the winner during the Real Country finale, Floyd’s future includes a lot more music.

“On Dec. 12, I’m going to release my single, called ‘The Blade,’ which is where I got my Grammy nomination from,” revealed the singer. “I’m going to do my own version and release it as a single the very next day. So I’m hoping not only am I the Grammy-nominated waitress, but maybe I can be the waitress with a No. 1 song in country music. Anything is possible, I hope.”

The season finale of Real Country will air on Tuesday, Dec. 11, at 11 p.m. ET on the USA Network.

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