Ashley Elle
On December 13, Nashville recording artist Becca Bowen brings her signature mix of southern charm and stage fire to Pittsburgh for Santa on the Scene, theCITYSCENE magazine’s inaugural holiday gala benefiting UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, where she will be performing live at Rivers Casino. It’s more than a performance – it’s a celebration of faith, heart, and purpose.
When Becca Bowen walks into a room, the energy shifts. That unmistakable South Carolina drawl, that quick, unfiltered laugh, and the easy confidence that blends feminine grace with country girl grit; it’s all there before she ever sings a note. This December, the rising Nashville artist will bring that same magnetic presence to Rivers Casino Drum Bar, when she headlines theCITYSCENE‘s Santa on the Scene gala, an evening of music, giving, and holiday spirit. It’s the kind of night Bowen was built to lead: equal parts soul, sparkle, and show-woman swagger.
“There’s nothing like stepping on stage,” she told us between sips of coffee. “I was born to do this. And if people take the time to show up for you, you give them 110% every time.”
She means it. Bowen is the rare performer who describes herself as “kind of introverted” offstage and then, once the band counts in, she commands the stage like she’s got an entire arena to wake up. The moment the spotlight hits, it’s as if every quiet part of her disappears, replaced by a woman born to turn emotion into electricity.
If you trace Bowen’s journey back to its first note, you land in a small church where a five-year-old Becca is standing on tiptoe at the mic, learning that sound can lift a room. By six, she’s the tiny opener on gospel tours with The Crusaders, singing three or four songs before the adults take over; crisscrossing towns, sleeping between suit bags and hymnals, watching how grown musicians hold a stage and hold a crowd. Those early days taught her the mechanics of stagecraft and the purpose of it. Gospel, after all, is storytelling designed to make people feel.
The first song she ever sang on tour? A classic children’s gospel number called I Am a Promise, with the kind of lyrics a kid can memorize and a grown woman can lean into. Between her mother’s constant encouragement and her father’s structure and guidance, the promise stuck. It still does.
For Bowen, home sounded like harmony. On her mother’s side of the family, almost everyone was gifted with musical talent and voices crooned around kitchen tables. Her grandfather would cook while the radio poured out George Strait and Alan Jackson; he’d keep a guitar within arm’s reach, pausing to tell stories between verses. The effects of these kitchen sessions are evident in her sound today: warm, rangy, and filled to the brim with southern-soul. Country wasn’t a lane she chose; it was the language of home.
“Gospel is where I learned that music can heal, that it can change a room,” she says. “Country does that, too. It’s honest stories.”
There were other stages, too. She moved north for a spell, sharpening her chops in New York theater, even understudying Laura Bell Bundy in Ruthless! – a detour that taught her breath control, comic timing, and how to make the back row feel seen. But every time she flew home, that kitchen chorus pulled her back in.
Eventually, Nashville called. The town demands two things from artists: work ethic and kindness. Bowen exemplified both: vying for writers’ rounds, saying yes to every small slot, showing up early at The Listening Room, staying late to talk to her fans. You earn respect in Music City by being both undeniable and helpful. Bowen’s code is simple: write often, sing well, share contacts, and don’t compete with your friends.
Bowen’s songwriting inspiration comes from myriad sources, and she carries a dog-eared notebook of hooks and fragments everywhere she goes. Sometimes a co-writer brings the melody and she arrives with the words; sometimes it’s a line overheard in a conversation. (Like “Baby, lie to me,” which a former flame once said to Bowen.) And sometimes it’s catharsis, with marathon writing sessions that feel more therapeutic than melodic.
Heartbreaking Business, her 2024 breakout, sprang from the moment she realized a charmer wasn’t what he seemed. It’s a roadtrip anthem for anyone who’s ever sung through their tears, simultaneously defiant and resilient. Bettin’ On You, released in May, leans the other way: poker metaphors, ‘90s-country strut, and the belief that love is still worth the risk.
Her 2022 debut album, Like You’ve Never Been Loved, set the table; her newer singles have clarified the recipe. Bowen’s sound has shifted into a muscular, country-rock lane that suits her lived-in stories and the full-throttle energy of her live show.
If the up-tempo hits built her runway, Mama’s Prayer shows the altitude she’s now flying at. Written with her longtime producer Sal Oliveri, the single is a tender thank-you to the mother who never stopped interceding when Nashville felt like a maze. The production is sparse – fiddle and air, lantern-lit vocal out front – and it lands beautifully.
Released in September 2025, the song marked a new, more vulnerable chapter for Bowen and drew quick attention from country press and faith-leaning outlets alike. It’s not a pivot so much as a revelation, linking those South Carolina pews to a modern Nashville studio in a way that feels inevitable.
“Once I started releasing the songs I was scared to write, everything changed,” she says. As her lyrics deepened, so did her identity. The brand that first introduced her to fans was never the whole story, it was just her opening act. Yes, she’s the Season 5 winner of the Outdoor Channel’s For Love or Likes; a title that turbo-charged her fanbase and cemented her previously-earned “Country Barbie” nickname. With her blonde hair, effortless style, and Barbie-like charm, all paired with a deep love for the great outdoors, she embodies a rare blend of beauty, grit, and Southern authenticity. But the artist onstage in 2025 is simply Becca: a songwriter telling the truth, not performing a bit. “I leaned into the Country Barbie persona for a while,” she says, “then I realized my real power is in my music.” She’s still every bit the show-woman, but now the sparkle comes with even more substance. Her message is simple: you can be feminine, fierce, and faithful, and you don’t have to pick just one.
Maybe that’s the secret: she’s built on both sparkle and steel. Her father taught her resilience, her mother modeled faith, and together they gave her a foundation sturdy enough to chase a dream that doesn’t come easy.
Offstage, there are aerobics-class friends who still road-trip to all her shows, two dogs with adorable names (Peanut the traveling Chihuahua, Diesel the American bully), and steady discipline that looks like early mornings and late nights.
Backstage, she cues up Eye of the Tiger, fist-bumps the band, and lets the adrenaline do its good work. In conversation, she’s measured and private; in the lights, she’s kinetic: spins, stomps, guitar duels, the whole room in her pocket by the second chorus. You can feel the arena air change when the crowd starts singing back her songs.
Bowen’s confidence – and the edge that comes with it – has carried her far beyond the songwriter rounds and small venues where she first cut her teeth. She’s opened for the likes of Alabama and Colt Ford. She’s performed at CMA Fest 2025 and headlined Nashville’s legendary Whiskey Jam. She and her band tore through sets at Bridgestone Arena for the Nashville Predators’ Music City Showdown, a local-band showcase presented by Dr Pepper.
There’s theater, too. In October, Bowen starred as Pat and served as Associate Producer in Theophany, a new musical that played the Tennessee Performing Arts Center and the Fisher Center, opposite Jake Hoot (winner of The Voice). The collaboration didn’t end when the curtain fell; Bowen and Hoot cut a duet (another penned with Oliveri) slated for release in the new year.
And then there’s Dolly. Bowen walked the red carpet at the Nashville premiere of Dolly Parton’s musical and snagged a moment of advice. Dolly, with her signature giggle, told her: “Honey, if I looked like you, I’d go straight to Hollywood.” Compliment aside, what stuck with Bowen was the example: humility with horsepower; a woman who writes the truth and wears it proudly.
When Bowen talks about performing, there’s no ego, just gratitude. “Every time I get to be on a stage, I think about my parents,” she says. “They believed before anyone else did.” That humility keeps her grounded even as the stages get bigger. Whether it’s a packed arena or a local fundraiser, she treats every show like an opportunity: one more chance to connect, to make somebody feel seen.
For Santa on the Scene, Bowen, with guitarist and frequent co-writer Sam Woods, are shaping the night to feel like one big celebration: holiday classics you can sing along to, originals that make you feel something, a surprise or two, and a late-night sweet and slow closer if the room calls for it.
It’s a fundraiser gala, yes, but it’s also a city hello: a first impression for many Pittsburghers of a performer we know you’ll be seeing a lot more of. Because beyond the big voice and knee-slide theatrics is a writer who thrives on telling her whole story. That’s what makes the new work hit harder. It’s what makes a winter gala feel like a homecoming – even in a town she didn’t grow up in.
“I want to leave a legacy,” Bowen says. “If I were doing this for fame, I’d have quit already. I’m doing this because music is how I make a difference in the world.”
On December 13, come experience what that difference sounds like.
Visit beccabowenmusic.com for music, tour updates, and new releases as her next chapter unfolds.
