They’ve reached the top tier of the music industry working with major artists; now these songwriters are taking the main stage.

Tayla Parx

Even if you’ve never heard of Tayla Parx, you’re probably familiar with her work. Having cowritten “Thank U, Next” for Ariana Grande and “High Hopes” for Panic! At The Disco, Parx knows how to create a hit. But the multitalented performer’s first taste of success came back in 2007, playing Little Inez in Hairspray; she was 12 at the time. “My acting helps me get into the role of writing for other artists,” says the L.A.-based 26-year-old, who was raised in Dallas. But Parx was her own muse for We Need to Talk, her debut album for Atlantic, which she describes as “two years [of my life] squashed into 35 minutes. Now I’m at the point where I’m creating the next album, and I’m just letting life happen.”

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2019 CMA Music Festival - Ingrid Andress
Erika Goldring//Getty Images

Ingrid Andress

If you couldn’t tell by her country hit “More Hearts Than Mine,” Ingrid Andress, 28, is a family kind of girl. In the tearjerker track, she captures the intensity of introducing a new love to the folks who loved her first. But Andress, whose cowriting chops span the gamut from Charli XCX’s giddy “Boys” to Halestorm’s gritty “Conflicted,” doesn’t just use her family as songwriting inspiration; her father, a former coach for the Colorado Rockies, also coaches her, in a way. “He has endless sports metaphors,” she says. “From him, I know that there are going to be ups and downs, and it doesn’t mean things are bad; it’s just normal.” For now, though, things are looking way up. At Nashville’s CMA Fest in June, crowds sang Andress’s “More Hearts Than Mine” and “Lady Like” back to her, which was, she says, “fricking incredible.”

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Emily Weisband_Libby Oellerich
Libby Oellerich

Emily Weisband

Emily Weisband is in the midst of an identity crisis—and not just the one she sings about in her brutally honest single of the same name. Since signing with This Music in 2014, she’s written songs for BTS and P!nk, and now she’s added recording artist to her résumé. Weisband’s debut EP (also called Identity Crisis) with Warner Records, out October 18, features seven songs just as raw as the title track. When it came time to choose which ones to include, she sought the advice of her friend and fellow songwriter, Keith Urban. “He said that I shouldn’t pay attention to other people’s responses but to how proud I feel playing my songs for them,” says Weisband, 26. “It just changed my whole perspective. Now, with every song, I’m standing taller than ever.”

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This article will appear in the October 2019 issue of ELLE on newsstands September 24.

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