Lady in Waiting

Billie Mae McCallister, better known as Lady in Waiting, grew up in Brainerd, Minnesota, where she spent her teenage years writing songs in bedrooms, playing battered guitars and developing an unhealthy obsession with old pop records. Her stage name came from a joke about always feeling like she was waiting for her life to begin—a feeling that eventually became central to her music.

McCallister first began attracting attention as a songwriter before stepping fully into the spotlight herself. Her breakthrough came with “Majorette,” a swaggering, bittersweet collaboration with Minneapolis rock band Aneurysm. Built around distorted guitars, handclaps and an enormous pop chorus, the track became an unexpected crossover hit, introducing Lady in Waiting's theatrical songwriting and deadpan charisma to a much wider audience.