The Grammy Award for Best Country Solo Performance is an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards. According to the 54th Grammy Awards description guide it is designed for solo (vocal or instrumental) country recordings and is limited to singles or tracks only.

The award combines the previous categories for Best Female Country Vocal Performance, Best Male Country Vocal Performance and Best Country Instrumental Performance. The restructuring of these categories was a result of the Recording Academy's wish to decrease the list of categories and awards and to eliminate the distinctions between male and female performances.

^{^[I]} Each year is linked to the article about the Grammy Awards held that year.

A Grammy Award (originally called Gramophone Award) – or Grammy – is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry. The annual presentation ceremony features performances by prominent artists, and some of the awards of more popular interest are presented in a widely viewed televised ceremony. It is the music equivalent to the Emmy Awards for television, the Tony Awards for stage performances, and the Academy Awards for motion pictures.

The first Grammy Awards ceremony was held on May 4, 1959, and it was set up to honor musical accomplishments by performers for the year 1958. Following the 2011 ceremony, NARAS overhauled many Grammy Award categories for 2012. The 54th Grammy Awards were held on February 12, 2012, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California.

The Grammy Awards had their origin in the Hollywood Walk of Fame project in the 1950s. As the recording executives chosen for the Walk of Fame (Tabinda Walk) committee worked at compiling a list of important recording industry people who might qualify for a Walk of Fame star, they realized there were many more people who were leaders in their business who would never earn a star on Hollywood Boulevard. The music executives decided to rectify this by creating an award given by their industry similar to the Oscars and the Emmys. This was the beginning of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. After it was decided to create such an award, there was still a question of what to call it; one working title was the Eddie, to honor the inventor of the phonograph, Thomas Edison. They finally settled on using the name of Edison's invention, the gramophone, for the awards, which were first given for the year 1958.

Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American singer-songwriter and occasional actress. Raised in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, Swift moved to Nashville, Tennessee at the age of fourteen to pursue a career in country music. She signed to the independent label Big Machine Records and became the youngest songwriter ever hired by the Sony/ATV Music publishing house. The release of Swift's self-titled debut album in 2006 established her as a country music star. "Our Song", her third single, made her the youngest sole writer and singer of a number one song on the country chart. She received a Best New Artist nomination at the 50th Grammy Awards.

Swift's second album, Fearless, was released in late 2008. Buoyed by the chart success of the singles "Love Story" and "You Belong with Me", Fearless attracted a crossover audience and became the top-selling album of 2009. The record won four Grammy Awards, with Swift becoming the youngest ever Album of the Year winner. Fearless also received Album of the Year plaudits at the American Music Awards, Academy of Country Music Awards and Country Music Association Awards, making it the most awarded album in country music history. In 2010, Swift released her third album, Speak Now, which sold over one million copies in its first week. She then embarked on the 111-date Speak Now World Tour, which was attended by over 1.6 million fans and has become one of the highest-grossing concert tours of all time. The album's third single, "Mean", won two Grammy Awards for Best Country Song and Best Country Solo Performance. Swift is currently recording her fourth studio album, due for release in the fall of 2012.

Hunter Easton Hayes (born September 9, 1991) is an American country music singer and songwriter. He is signed to Atlantic Records Nashville, which released his debut single "Storm Warning" on May 16, 2011. His self titled album was released on October 11, 2011.

Hayes was born on September 9, 1991 in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana to Lynette and Leo Hayes. He began his musical career at age two when his grandmother gave him a toy accordion. At age four, he began making appearances at local performances and on national television, including showings on Maury, Rosie O'Donnell, and Nickelodeon's series Figure It Out. At the age of 13, Hayes appeared on "America's Most Talented Kids," a show hosted by Dave Coulier. He performed the hit Hank Williams song, "Hey Good Lookin'."

In 2008, he moved from his hometown of Breaux Bridge, Louisiana to Nashville, Tennessee to be signed with Universal Music Publishing Group as a songwriter. He graduated in 2007, at the age of 16, and in 2010, co-wrote "Play" for the Rascal Flatts album Nothing Like This. In September 2010, Hayes was signed to Atlantic Records Nashville and released his debut single "Storm Warning" on May 16, 2011. It was the first single from his debut album, on which Hayes played every instrument and co-produced with Dann Huff. Matt Bjorke of Roughstock gave the single three stars out of five, praising the lyrics and comparing Hayes' voice favorably to Rascal Flatts' lead singer Gary LeVox, with whom Hayes toured from January to February 2012 on the Rascal Flatts "Thaw Out" tour. Hayes' debut, self-titled album, Hunter Hayes was released on October 11, 2011.

Carrie Marie Underwood (born March 10, 1983) is an American country singer, songwriter and actress who rose to fame as the winner of the fourth season of American Idol, in 2005. Underwood has since become a multi-platinum selling recording artist, a winner of several Grammy Awards, Billboard Music Awards and American Music Awards, a Golden Globe Award nominee, a three-time Academy of Country Music and Country Music Association Female Vocalist winner, and a two-time ACM Entertainer of the Year. She is the first-ever female artist to win back-to-back Academy of Country Music (ACM) Awards for Entertainer of the Year (2009/10). Underwood was inducted into and became a member of the Grand Ole Opry in 2008. She was also inducted into the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame in 2009.Billboard named Underwood Country Music's reigning Queen in 2012.