If you’ve seen country breakout artist Tanner Adell with big, obnoxious blonde wigs lately, we’re here to tell you there’s more to her aesthetic than just channeling old Dolly Parton.
After making her big break by being featured on Beyoncé’s “Cowboy Carter” album, Adell has been gaining popularity and rolling out new tunes. The artist’s latest single “Going Blonde” is indeed inspired by the country legend Dolly Parton, however, Adell wrote the song as an emotional ode to her biological mother.
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After years of holding on to the heartbreaking story of finding her way from adoption to searching for her biological family, Adell found the courage to tell the world her story.
Grab your tissues, this is a deep one…
The Synopsis
“Your mom cheating on your dad and thinking she got pregnant by her side dude…,” wrote one X user whom Adell reposted, adding that she never got to meet her biological mom.
Adell reposted this the week “Going Blonde” was set to debut but there’s even more to the story behind this tale.
Origins
Adell was adopted and raised in Manhattan Beach, California with four siblings — who were also adopted — before moving to Nashville and Kentucky.
The Backstory
Adell said in a social media video that she always knew she was different from her white, Amish, adopted parents but could never put her finger on why. She knew part of it had to do with being biracial and having a fully white mom. She described in her social media videos that they would butt heads often.
DNA Testing
At some point several years ago, Adell said her parents decided to get an AncestryDNA kit for her (as a Christmas present).
Digging Deeper
Adell found her biological father via Facebook to ask more questions. The two kept in touch every once in a while which led Adell to discover her birth mother was married with children but had Adell as a result of an affair which resulted in her ultimate adoption.
A New Found Brother
Not long after this, the same DNA testing led her to her brother, who shared the same mother as her.
“It turns out he had been looking for me for most of his life and had tried literally every DNA test he could get his hands on,” she said in her Instagram video. “I had never seen someone that looked like me… It was amazing.”
New Discovery
Though, Adell said the DNA test also showed the two were full siblings and not just half-siblings – meaning they shared the same biological parents as opposed to her suspicion that they had different fathers.
A Shocking Plot Twist
Adell said she assumed her mother panicked as a result of the pregnancy from her affair and placed Adell for adoption out of fear. Adell said she was sent to the adoption center while her father went on military deployment.
A Heartbreaking Discovery
When Adell asked her brother to connect her with her mother, he broke her heart with the reason why he couldn’t. Adell’s mother had died five years prior to that conversation and passed before her brother was able to find her.
Finding Her Mother
All her brother could share with Adell was a photo of their mother. Adell said aside from being the most beautiful woman she’s seen, she was struck by how much her mother favored Dolly Parton.
Connection Through Music
Adell then conceded that the only way she could experience her mother was by connecting to Parton’s music, zoning in on the star’s 1967 song “Dumb Blonde.”
“Going Blonde”
Adell also decided the way to stay connected to her mother was to dye her hair blonde as it tends to go brown during certain seasons.
“I started to realize how blonde hair felt like protection from my mom. It felt like she’s there with me,” Adell said on Instagram. “And that was when I was like, ‘Oh, I’m going blonde.’ I made my first-ever hair coloring appointment and I got my hair done.”
Song Meaning
Hence fourth case the single “Going Blonde” which memorializes the singer’s mother, talks about how she imagines her mother to be and grieves the relationship she wishes she had with her.
Fans Seek More
The song originally began as an unpublished draft before fans pegged her to go public with it. However, with the song’s release, she felt obligated to tell the tale behind it, she said.
“I didn’t know if I would ever want anyone to hear it, but I’m realizing that there’s a lot of people that have lost someone and try to keep anything of them close… and that’s really what this song is about,” she said.
Tanner Adell Tugs The Heart Strings
“I’m goin’ blonde and I’m never goin’ back/ Yeah, blonde like the mama that I never had/ She knew what she wanted, she’d give you hell/ She was flirty and gorgeous, but toughеr than nails. At least that’s what I always thought. So I’m goin’ blonde…,” Adell croons in the ballad.
Fans have since poured out sympathies and even shared their own experiences with adoption and the emotional journey to finding their biological parents.
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