Ashley Cooke Reflects on Success of Award-Winning Song ‘Your Place,’ Reveals She ‘Fought For It’ (Exclusive)

Ashley Cooke is a certified hitmaker. The singer has been climbing the country music charts over the past year, with her song “Your Place” ranking very high on multiple lists. PopCulture.com recently had a chance to chat with Cooke, ahead of the anniversary of her debut album, Shot in the Dark, to talk about how she reflects on the past year — which includes a 2024 ACM Awards nomination for Best New Female Artist — particularly the success of “Your Place.”

“Man, that’s so weird. I didn’t even realize that it was coming up on a year. It feels like it was yesterday,” Cooke said. “Honestly, it really feels like I’ve just blinked and all of a sudden we’re here. I think we’ve been so deep in album promo and touring and all this stuff that I haven’t really had a chance to actually take a minute to really feel what the last year has looked like.”

“That album and the songs… “Your Place” and “Never Til Now” and all these songs that are on there… it’s truly changed my life in the best way,” she continued. “It’s weird to think about a year ago where we were, prepping for the album and the visuals and the photo shoots and all the things that we did.”

“It’s crazy to look back on and to know that I’m a year out from my debut album. It’s so weird. I feel like time is just absolutely flying,” Cooke continued. “I think it’s just what happens when you’re just busy all the time, but it’s nuts. It feels like I am going to blink and it’ll be 10 years from now.”

To say that “Your Place” is a hit would be an understatement. The track just landed at number five on U.S. country radio charts, while topping charts in the U.K. and climbing high in several other countries. It also landed Cooke Breakthrough Female Video of the Year at the 2024 CMT Music Awards, marking her first-ever award nomination and win, and has racked up more than two million views on YouTube.

“I think personally deep within myself, I always felt like the song was really special and I fought for it,” Cooke said of her feelings about the song, which she wrote with Jordan Minton and Mark Trussell. “In rooms where people maybe didn’t think that it was the song or whatever it may be, I really fought for it. The day that we wrote it, I felt it deep within myself, my soul. I was like, ‘This feels like a really cool song and I’m really proud of this song.’”

Cooke went on to share, “Somebody asked me this one time… If there was a song, one song you could show somebody that never heard of you before and you were like, ‘Hey, this is a song that represents my whole life and artistic career and what I do,’ it’d be ‘Your Place.’ That’s what I thought about.”

Speaking more in-depth about “Your Place,” Cooke said, “It’s unique… it’s a clever flip on the hook… it just feels good. There’s so many things about that song that I really think is special.” 

Cooke later added, “I’m really thankful that I trusted my gut and fought for it. Normally, I would — if it’s not a win for everybody in the room — I’d be like, ‘OK, I understand. We’re a team… we’re all working for this project and promoting this project.’ But that was one that I put my foot down and I was like, ‘I love this song. I’m sorry, I got to fight for it. I really want this on the project… I feel like you trust your team, but then also when you feel like in your gut something’s right.”

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