At the end of her American Idol audition when Katy Perry said “Be your own hero” — Gabby Barrett took it to heart and did exactly that.

Since then Gabby has been a rising star in country music, and 2020 has been her best year yet.

During the course of a normal year, she would have been busy crisscrossing the nation performing and making appearances…to the point where she probably couldn’t have fully appreciated the success that her song “I Hope” was having.

But like almost everyone else, Gabby was at home throughout quarantine, and had time to take it all in.

Gabby says, “You know, I’ve been able to sit more in the back seat, rather than performing and moving at a thousand miles per hour constantly, which is the normal artist life. So, I’ve been able to let kind of everything that’s going on soak in, which has been really really nice.”

So, when it comes to “I Hope,” did Gabby know the song would do what it did? She admits, “I never would’ve expected all of this from this song. So, I just think that the lord has been very gracious to me and I’m just very thankful.”

“I Hope” made history as the longest running number-1 song on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, and was named as Billboard’s Top Country Song of 2020.

Photo Credit: Robby Klein