Career beginnings and ''What's So Hard About Bein' a Man'' (2008–2014) Meuse began writing music at 18. Her first song was called "What's So Hard About Bein' a Man". She self-released a CD with the same name in 2011 and had written around 60 original songs by the time of her
American Idol audition. In October 2010, Meuse won the Stars of Alabama Artist Showcase, a statewide music competition which was judged by professionals from Montgomery, Alabama;
Atlanta, and
Nashville.
American Idol (2014) While participating as a musical act in
Vans Warped Tour, Meuse was encouraged by friends to audition for the 13th season of
American Idol in
Atlanta. She performed an original song called "Blue-Eyed Lie" and was advanced by all three judges. The judges were initially undecided between putting Meuse or Jesse Roach through to the top 30. To decide, the judges had Meuse and Roach do an impromptu sing-off. Meuse's performance of "
Simple Man" (by
Lynyrd Skynyrd) advanced her to the Top 30. All of the contestants reprised their audition songs for top 8-week, giving Meuse the opportunity to sing "Blue Eyed Lie" again. That made her the first contestant in the history of
American Idol to sing an original song during the finals. For top 4-week, she was originally going to sing another original song, called "The Hell You Put Me Through"–all of the contestants were going to sing originals for one of their performances that week. However, the producers changed their minds late in the week and gave the contestants a short amount of time to choose a replacement from a very limited list of songs. Meuse chose
Pinks' "
So What." Meuse's fan base is known as "The Meuse Mafia." She jokingly refers to her experience on the show as being like the
Hunger Games and in one of the
American Idol shows she braided her hair in the same style as
Katniss Everdeen. Several reviewers and journalists felt that Meuse was unfairly treated by the show including Annie Barrett, who wrote for
TVLine that the judges were "just blatantly not rooting for her at all.
Lyndsey Parker of
Yahoo! Music concurred, writing that "it seemed like the judges and producers were doing their best" to get Meuse eliminated from the competition. She said that Meuse received "harsh critique" for praise-worthy performances, even as the judges overlooked significant flaws in other contestants.
BuddyTV writer Jeff Dodge opined that Meuse was being held to an unfair "double standard." Writing for
TV Guide, Liz Raftery assessed fan opinion as being "frustrat[ed]" with the judges over their poor treatment of Meuse. Meuse was never among the "Bottom 3", until top 7-week, when the "Bottom 2" was composed of her and the eliminated contestant,
Dexter Roberts. There was no bottom 2 for top 5-week. The contestants were offered a choice–if they agreed unanimously, the week's results would be discarded and all five of them would move on to perform again. Two of them would be eliminated a week later. Although Meuse voted in favor of the idea, the vote was not unanimous and Sam Woolf was eliminated. She came in fourth place and reprised her performance of "Blue Eyed Lie" as her exit song. during the
American Idol season 13 tour
"Blue-Eyed Lie" During her time on
American Idol, Meuse was known for her original song "Blue-Eyed Lie". She had already gained positive attention for the song in
Alabama a year earlier after performing it for an artist showcase held by the Alabama Media Group. At the time, Mary Colurso of AL.com commented on the song, calling it "confident and gritty". Lyndsey Parker of Yahoo! Music called Meuse's performance of the song "stellar", Michael Slezak of TVLine, who lauded the song for its gritty vocals and "stinging lyrics", ranked Meuse's live performance of "Blue-Eyed Lie" as being one of the 30 greatest moments in the history of
American Idol.
Post-Idol and Halfhearted (2014–present) Meuse returned to the
American Idol stage for the season 13 finale, where she performed with
Jennifer Nettles. She performed in the
American Idol summer tour from June 24, 2014 to August 23. After the tour, Meuse went back to performing shows mostly in Alabama and
Georgia, although she also played occasionally in
California and
Tennessee. In early 2015, she told
The Hollywood Reporter that she had intentions of moving to
Los Angeles. and a second single, "Rio Grande", was released on January 5, 2016. Although Meuse expressed on
Twitter in late 2016 that she considered Los Angeles to be her "second home", she continued to live primarily in Slapout until the end of 2016, when she moved to
Houston accepting a position with the Lone Survivor Foundation. Around the same time, she announced that she had an EP in production. Within a few months, the EP was expanded into a full album. Titled
Halfhearted, it was released through Warrior Records on August 3, 2018, as Meuse's first post-
Idol album. All of the songs on
Halfhearted were written by Meuse. The album reached the iTunes Top Ten Country Albums. Four songs from
Halfhearted were released as singles leading up to the album's release: "Love Her Better" on June 1, "High" on June 15, "California Dream" on June 29, and "Thank God It Didn't Work" on July 13. and
Taste of Country liked the song saying it is "a full-throated vocal showcase that demands your attention." Meuse left Warrior Records in 2019. Among the tracks on
Halfhearted is "Without You", a duet between Meuse and
Bo Bice. In June 2020, Fred Bronson of
Billboard lauded "Without You" as being an "overlooked gem". On April 15, 2020, Meuse premiered the song "Because You Love Me" as part of a virtual concert for
Bethesda Lutheran Communities. She wrote the song for the organization A music video for the song was released later that month. A year later, Meuse spoke with
Southwest News Media about the song, saying, "It can be about someone who loves somebody, about someone taking care of somebody; about the effect someone with different abilities has on their caretaker, or their family; it can be any kind of love; or it can be spiritual. For me, it’s my spirituality. A lot of times that’s what gets me through hardships and difficult times; when I am at the bottom, struggling." ==Personal life==