Kelly Clarkson to Co-Headline Brandi Carlile’s Girls Just Wanna Weekend 2027

Kelly Clarkson is headed to Mexico in January 2027 as a co-headliner of Brandi Carlile’s Girls Just Wanna Weekend. The eighth annual, female-centric music gathering is scheduled for January 14-18 at the Barcelo Maya Resort, with Carlile sharing top billing alongside Clarkson.

The announced lineup places a major pop vocalist beside a broad set of artists associated with Americana, singer-songwriter music, alternative pop and roots music. Sierra Ferrell, the Beaches, CMAT, Allison Russell, Brandy Clark and Lucius are among the other named performers. The program also includes Arroba Nat, Tish Melton, SistaStrings, Autumn Nicholas, the Carlile Family Band, the Marshgrass Mamas and comedian Kristin Key.

For Clarkson, the booking adds a destination-festival appearance to a year otherwise largely defined by her Caesars Palace residency and selected live dates. She is also a coach on season 30 of The Voice, and released the single “I’d Be Lyin’” in July.

A co-headlining bill built around contrasting musical lanes

“Co-headliner” means the event is presenting two artists at the top of the bill rather than positioning one as the sole featured act. Here, it puts Clarkson and Carlile together as the marquee names, while the rest of the roster supplies a deliberately varied musical mix.

Clarkson is often associated with powerhouse pop performance and, notably, with karaoke-style cover material. Carlile’s festival has longstanding roots in singer-songwriter and Americana communities, making the addition notable less because it narrows the event’s identity than because it widens the range of voices at its center.

That range is visible throughout the announced names. Ferrell is identified as an Americana standout, while Brandy Clark, Allison Russell, Lucius and SistaStrings bring further singer-songwriter, ensemble and roots-oriented representation. CMAT, the Beaches, Tish Melton and Arroba Nat create a broader contemporary-pop and alternative-facing spread. The result is not a lineup that can be reduced to a single radio format—and that is likely part of its appeal.

Girls Just Wanna Weekend also has a history of giving substantial space to artists whose work crosses genre boundaries. Previous editions have featured Shania Twain, Muna, Sarah McLachlan, Janelle Monae and Sara Bareilles. This past January’s co-headliners were the Chicks and Sam Smith; Smith was the gathering’s first nonbinary headliner.

CMAT returns despite the festival’s usual approach

CMAT’s presence has an extra point of interest. The event does not generally bring main-stage artists back in consecutive years, but it is making an exception following her strong reception at this past January’s edition.

That decision gives the 2027 program a small but meaningful thread of continuity. In festival terms, a returning act can help preserve a sense of community for attendees who found a new favorite at the prior event, while a new co-headliner such as Clarkson changes the top-line draw. It is a balance between familiarity and discovery rather than a wholesale repeat of the previous year’s show.

The bill also includes Titans of Americana, described as a round-robin presentation of established singer-songwriters. A round robin, in this context, is typically a shared performance format rather than a conventional full individual set: several musicians rotate through songs and appearances. The participating artists for that segment have not yet been announced, so attendees should treat its final personnel as to be determined.

The closing-night covers question

One recurring part of Girls Just Wanna Weekend is its closing-night jam devoted to covers from the 1990s. Clarkson’s participation naturally raises the prospect of a particularly lively communal set, given her longstanding association with singing songs outside her own catalog.

There is also room for the tradition to shift. An all-2000s theme has been floated as a possibility, a change that would open the door for other performers to tackle Clarkson material. No final change to the theme is established, however, and the 1990s-covers jam remains the event’s known tradition.

Cover nights work differently from an artist’s scheduled headline performance. A headlining set centers on that artist’s own show and repertoire; a closing jam is collaborative by design, with participants sharing the stage and interpreting songs associated with other performers. That difference matters for fans planning around the event: Clarkson is confirmed as a co-headliner, while her involvement in the jam and its eventual song-era framing should be regarded as an anticipated festival possibility, not a separately announced program detail.

For readers interested in how artists frame competition and shared-song formats in pop culture, the idea of a catalog-driven matchup also surfaces in this Verzuz matchup discussion involving Boosie Badazz and Lil Wayne. The festival jam is a very different setting: it is collaborative rather than competitive, and focused on group covers rather than a head-to-head contest.

Carlile’s active touring and album cycle

Carlile recently completed the U.S. leg of her “Human” arena tour. That tour is set to continue in the United Kingdom early next year, while a shorter run of all-request theater shows is planned for November.

An all-request show is exactly what its name suggests: a performance shaped around audience requests rather than a fully fixed set list. It can provide a different experience from an arena production, where staging and sequencing may require greater predictability. The theater dates and the resort festival therefore occupy distinct parts of Carlile’s live schedule, with the latter built around a multi-artist destination event.

Carlile also recently marked the one-year anniversary of her album Returning to Myself during an appearance at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles, where she was interviewed on stage by Cameron Crowe. The album is in contention for the 2027 Grammy Awards.

What is confirmed for January 2027

Dates: January 14-18, 2027.
Location: Barcelo Maya Resort in Mexico.
Co-headliners: Brandi Carlile and Kelly Clarkson.
Additional announced artists: Sierra Ferrell, the Beaches, CMAT, Allison Russell, Brandy Clark, Lucius, Arroba Nat, Tish Melton, SistaStrings, Autumn Nicholas, the Carlile Family Band and the Marshgrass Mamas.
Other programmed acts: comedian Kristin Key and the Titans of Americana round-robin segment, whose lineup is still to be announced.

The event uses an all-inclusive resort/festival-pass model. Information about passes and related details is available through the festival’s official site. Because the announced roster includes both fixed names and at least one to-be-announced collaborative segment, prospective attendees should distinguish between the confirmed artist list and details that remain pending.

Clarkson’s co-headlining role is the central new addition, but the full picture is the broader assembly around her: Carlile’s established gathering, CMAT’s unusual consecutive-year return, a still-unrevealed Americana round robin, and a closing-night covers tradition that could become a natural showcase for one of pop’s most recognizable vocalists.