It’s time to listen to Mickey Guyton.

To her songs. And the stories behind them.

Maybe that’s why Guyton released her latest song on Blackout Tuesday, when the music industry was supposed to stay silent.

Without the noise from others, maybe it was time to hear from Guyton, one of the few Black voices in country music.

She wrote “Black Like Me” over a year ago on a writer’s retreat. She and her team had a plan for releasing it as a single, but that was put on pause because of the coronavirus. “And then I saw Ahmaud (Arbery),” Guyton told NPR. “And then I saw Breonna (Taylor). And then I saw George (Floyd).”

She shared “Black Like Me” on her Instagram without permission from anyone and without promotional fare. She thought people needed to hear it.

Soon, it appeared on Spotify’s Hot Country playlist. It has been streamed more than 2 million times.

Guyton sings about being a little kid in a small town doing her best to fit in. “Broke my heart on the playground,” she sings. “When they said I was different.” Later, the poignant chorus comes in: “If you think we live in the land of the free. You should try to be Black like me.”

On Instagram, the singer-songwriter said she wanted to people to understand what she — and other Black people — have gone through.

“Our world is on fire right now,” she wrote. “There is so much division and hate. I wrote this song over a year ago because I was so tired of seeing so much hate and oppression. And yet here we are in the exact same place! We must change that. I hope this song can give you a small glimpse into what my brothers and sisters have endured for 400+ years.”

The release comes after a long battle for Guyton to be heard — and find a place as a Black woman — in country music. She moved to Nashville over a decade ago looking to make it in the industry. For many years, her songs were declared “too pop” for country radio. Guyton told NPR that she’d often have to do her hair because “people don’t know how to do my kind of hair.”

“I did Nashville the Nashville way for so long, and I had seen so many women do Nashville the Nashville way, with very little results,” she said. “And that’s kind of how I felt within my own life as being a Black woman.”

Guyton has more to say than what is covered on “Black Like Me.”

Since George Floyd’s death, she said she has been crying every single day. But she’s also been speaking out on Twitter and in media interviews.

She’s also been sharing music from up-and-coming Black artists. When sharing a video of Reyna Roberts, Guyton wrote, ”Country music also looks like this.”