Lindsay Ell on Friendships with Other Artists: ‘We Want Each Other to Win’

Lindsay Ell just revealed she is undergoing surgery to remove some pre-cancerous cells in her body, but thankfully she will have several friends around who can help aid in her recovery.

The 29-year-old reveals she is close with several friends in country music, like Maren Morris, Cassadee Pope, RaeLynn and more, even though they often find themselves competing against each other for awards and chart positions.

“It’s fun to be able to have a group of good friends where we want each other to win,” Ell told PEOPLE. “We’re high-fiving each other to the top as we’re both achieving goals and experiencing heartbreaks. It’s really neat to be able to have friends who go through the same things you go through.”

“If we were all doing different careers, I would still be friends with them, which is a cool thing to be able to say,” she added. “They’re truly, genuinely great human beings.”

Ell is proud to be associated with such a strong group of female artists, who have been working tirelessly to make their music stand out.

“I feel like it’s gotten so much better than where it was even two, three years ago,” Ell told PopCulture.com. “To call it the Year of the Woman, I think so many things would have to happen. I don’t know. I hope that is the case. I feel like there are so many talented female artists right now recording music and that country music fans who are women want to hear other women sing and write songs, but a lot would have to happen this year in order to make that a thing in my mind.”

Ell’s surgery likely won’t keep her down for long. She’s hard at work on a new album, the follow-up to her 2017 The Project.

“As I’m turning 30 [on March 20] and entering into this new chapter of my life, I feel more myself than I ever have,” “Ell said. “I’m more confident than I ever have been. I know who I am. And going into the studio to record my second album, I think it’s a really cool time for me to be turning 30 because I have a lot to say, and I’m not as scared to say it as I was even two years ago.”

Ell is nominated for her first-ever ACM Award, for New Female Artist of the Year, a category she shares with her friends Danielle Bradbery, Ashley McBryde and Carly Pearce. The 2019 ACM Awards will air live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on Sunday, April 7, at 8 p.m. ET on CBS.

Photo Credit: Getty images/Jeff Kravitz/ACMA2018