Girls Just Wanna: Philly singer-songwriter Andrea Nardello shares her Brandi Carlile adventure with XPN’s Helen Leicht

Andrea Nardello | photo by Gabriela Barbieri for WXPN

Just before she took home three statues at this year’s Grammys, Brandi Carlile decided to beat the Seattle winter doldrums by throwing a getaway festival in Rivera Maya, Mexico. The inaugural Girls Just Wanna Weekend also included a treat for superfans: a little thing called Brandioke, a social media contest where finalists would get to cover a song from Carlile’s catalog with Brandi herself, as well as longtime collaborators the Hanseroth twins and the rest of her band.

One of the winners was Andrea Nardello, a singer-songwriter from the Philadelphia region who has been active on the local scene for the past eight years, and this week she appeared on the XPN Local Show with Helen Leicht to tell the story of her adventure.

“I’ve never attempted to cover a Brandi Carlile song before,” Nardello told Leicht. “That’s because she’s so incredible, vocally. She has such range, she belts, and it’s really intimidating to put something out there like that.”

After some convincing from friends and strategic song-choosing, she made a video of her covering “Mainstream Kid” from Carlile’s 2015 album The Firewatcher’s Daughter. She was one of ten winners from over 150 submissions, and as she explains to Leicht, was notified of her victory via an Instagram comment that she wasn’t even 100% sure was legit.

The trip to Mexico, though, proved to be an incredible experience: “The spirit of her festival was women lifting up other women and artists helping each other do good things,” says Nardello. “It’s not that hard of a concept to follow in life, not just in music: just be a good person, do good things, and pay it forward.”

Below, watch videos of Nardello on air on the XPN Local Show performing acoustic versions of “Mainstream Kid” as well as her own song “Human.” You can also listen to an audio archive of the full interview, and see photos from the studio; Andrea Nardello’s next regional performance is on March 9th at 118 North, while Brandi Carlile headlines The Mann Center on Friday, September 6th; tickets and more information on both shows can be found at the XPN Concert Calendar.

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