SEATTLE — Fresh off performing at the Super Bowl and kick-starting her latest arena tour — including a stop in Minneapolis last week that raised $600,000 for families affected by ICE operations in Minnesota — the high-profile honors keep coming for Brandi Carlile. The Washington artist and activist has been named one of Time magazine’s 2026 Women of the Year. Carlile is one of 16 included in ...

Brandi Carlile sings "America the Beautiful" to open Super Bowl LX at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California, on Feb. 8, 2026.

Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group/TNS

SEATTLE — Fresh off performing at the Super Bowl and kick-starting her latest arena tour — including a stop in Minneapolis last week that raised $600,000 for families affected by ICE operations in Minnesota — the high-profile honors keep coming for Brandi Carlile.

The Washington artist and activist has been named one of Time magazine’s 2026 Women of the Year.

Carlile is one of 16 included in the list of prominent women “working to create a more equitable world —­ leaders who we believe are addressing the most pressing issues confronting women and girls in 2026,” according to the magazine.

Actress/singer Teyana Taylor, author Mel Robbins, actress Lucy Liu and artist Amy Sherald are among the other women Time recognized in its fifth-annual Women of the Year list.

Besides lauding some of the usual career high water marks (the Grammys, aiding Joni Mitchell’s comeback) and commercial success, the write-up highlights how some of Carlile's most prominent work tackles social and political issues, including a performance of her politically charged “Church and State” on “Saturday Night Live” last year.

Time also notes how Carlile’s career-altering anthem “The Joke” and one of its signature lyrics directly “confronts sexism.”

“It feels like we’re in a backslide,” Carlile told Time, referring to how women’s rights have evolved since the song was first released in 2017. “It’s not just about what the media is saying. It’s an innate animal instinct that knows we have a heightened level of danger right now.”

The piece also draws attention to Carlile’s Super Bowl rendition of “America the Beautiful” and her interpretation of the song, which she described as “much more prayer than celebration.”

“It can be a lament, a bastion of hope, in a time when there isn’t a lot of that on offer,” Carlile told Time.

From the magazine: “Carlile notes that the song’s lyricist, Katharine Lee Bates, is believed by some scholars to have been a lesbian, which would place Carlile in a unique lineage. Looking back on her two-plus decades in the music industry, Carlile says that while success ‘comes and goes,’ the ‘one thing that has proved true and steadying to me is to have a community, a chosen family. And I think LGBTQ people have a unique perspective and ability to do this. I don’t think an artist can do it alone.’ ”