Rising MCA artist Kinsley has released Holiday Honky Tonk, an original Christmas single that flips the seasonal script into a neon-lit escape plan.
The song arrives as the first half of a back-to-back holiday pair: Holiday Honky Tonk is out now, with Kinsley’s studio version of Mary, Did You Know? due next Friday, 13 November.
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Both releases follow her debut EP Learn To Live, which landed via MCA on 25 September and marked a major early milestone for the 22-year-old singer-songwriter.
“This was easily one of the most fun writes I’ve ever been a part of,” Kinsley shares. “We started thinking about ‘I’ll Be Home for Christmas’ and wondered, ‘What if we had that backwards? What if he’s the one coming home for Christmas, and I’m the one hiding out in a honky tonk trying not to run into him?’ I loved the idea of taking a familiar Christmas classic and flipping it on its head.”
She adds: “We were writing a Christmas song in the middle of April, which made the whole thing even funnier. We had to just embrace the corniness and see how far we could take it. Most of my music tends to lean on the serious side, so it’s fun to let loose and laugh every once in a while. I think that’s what makes the song so special. It never took itself too seriously, and I love how it all came together.”
Written by Kinsley with Seth Mosely, RuthAnne Cunningham and Allison Veltz-Cruz, Holiday Honky Tonk mixes upbeat playfulness with the reluctance to celebrate. The narrator paints a picture of dodging a hometown sweetheart in a honky tonk hideaway, trading fireplace sentiment for string lights, neon and two-stepping until dawn.
The lyric turns classic Christmas imagery inside out: coal in the stocking for a cold heart, mistletoe as a dare rather than a promise, and a chorus that plants the singer firmly in the neon instead of on the porch. It is festive without being soft, and country without abandoning the emotional clarity that already marked Learn To Live.
Next Friday’s Mary, Did You Know? closes the two-week holiday push. Kinsley performed the song in her Midnight Sessions on YouTube last year, and the response was strong enough that she cut a full studio version for this season. Pairing an irreverent original with a more reverent cover gives listeners two very different sides of the same artist in the same festive window.
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Learn To Live already positioned Kinsley as a writer who treats songs as emotional refuge as much as personal diary. Entertainment Focus called the EP a project that “heralds the arrival of a major talent,” Billboard noted her “gritty, dramatic vocal” and the crack in her delivery that houses lived experience, and The Country Note pointed to a grounded personality running through the songs.
Holiday Honky Tonk shows she can also lean into humour without losing that grounded centre.
An old soul with a lifelong passion for poetry and songwriting, Kinsley approaches music as both expression and shelter, writing the kinds of songs that say the things people are often too afraid to say themselves.
Through that work she hopes not only to share her own story, but to give voice to experiences others struggle to put into words. A Christmas single that laughs while it hurts is simply another way into that same instinct.
That balance matters for an artist still introducing herself at scale. Learn To Live showed the serious, grounded writer; Holiday Honky Tonk proves she can pivot into seasonal storytelling without losing the emotional through-line that made the EP land. The joke works because the heartbreak underneath it is recognisable.
For country radio and playlist programmers looking for something festive that is not pure syrup, the single offers a ready-made hook and a clear narrative. For fans who found Kinsley through Learn To Live, it is a welcome reminder that her range includes lightness as well as grit. Either way, the holiday pair keeps her in the conversation through mid-November.
Stream Holiday Honky Tonk now via MCA, and pre-save Mary, Did You Know? ahead of its 13 November release.
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