Rissi Palmer broke into the country-pop scene in 2007 with the bright-eyed single "Country Girl." Palmer spent much of her adolescence in St. Louis, MO, where her participation in various talent competitions (including #Hal Jackson's Talented Teens) paved the way for a publishing deal with Song Planet when she was 20. A #Star Search rep stumbled across Palmer during one of her performances in New York, and the 21-year-old singer went on to compete on the 2003 season of the show. Coming in third in the season finale, Palmer was taken under the wing of #Star Search judge %Naomi Judd, whose manager helped Palmer nab a spot on #Waiting in the Wings, a CMT series about African-Americans in the country music business. She landed a record deal with 1720 Entertainment soon after.