Ally Salort talks “Change of Plans” after festival performance

Austin City Limits featured many talented artists this year, and the BMI stage hosted Ally Salort, who ended her set with swaying crowds, raised hands and her music added to new fans’ playlists.  

Salort, a New Jersey-based alt-pop singer, brought her vocals to Austin after being invited by BMI to perform on Sunday of weekend two.  

“I actually don’t think I’ve performed on a stage that big,” Salort told Women in Media during an exclusive interview. “I got to dance around, have a good time and see girls in the front who knew my words. It means a lot professionally because I’ve been to music festivals all my life and it’s kind of like a bucket list thing.”  

Salort started singing covers on social media and has been releasing singles since 2022. This eventually led to the creation of her first EP in July of this year, “Change of Plans.”  

“Through doing covers, I realized that by singing other people’s songs, you sort of take a lot with you,” Salort said. “I’ve done a bunch of different genres of covers, so finding which one I want to write in has been a fun process."

Salort’s melodic and deep lyrics resonate with audiences as she sings about heartbreak and growth. Songs like “Horror Movie,” which relates being the first character to die in a Horror Movie” with going back to the person you know will hurt you. “Tattoo (Selective Memory)” is about making excuses and trying to forget the bad things someone has done to you. With songs like these, it’s easy to understand why she should be on your radar. 

“I didn’t start out thinking I was going to write an EP, I was just kind of writing about a bunch of different things,” Salort said. “A bunch of songs ended up being about this one situation that threw me for a loop with this person, and that’s kind of how it came to be.” 

Although the city’s heat was no joke, that didn’t stop Salort from giving her all in Austin. 

New Jersey - based singer and songwriter Ally Salort performs on the BMI stage on weekend two.

Guitarist Tyler performs “We’re Not Friends” alongside Salort, one of their unreleased tracks.

Fans watch Salort’s first festival performance.

Fans watch Salort’s first festival performance.

Salort performs “Horror Movie” on the BMI stage.

Salort sings songs from her new EP “Change of Plans” which was released July of this year.

Fans watch Salort’s first festival performance.

Salort’s emotionally raw music speaks to themes of heartbreaks and growth.

Photos by Annabella Mireles

“I’ve heard about this festival forever,” she said. “BMI invited me, and it was at a moment when I was planning my headline shows, so it all just happened at once, which was really cool. And apparently, I got lucky with the shaded stage.” 

Fans who attended her set were blessed with coverage from the unforgiving Texas temperatures as the BMI stage faced away from the sun.

“I hope people feel comforted in me being vulnerable and saying things that I wouldn’t normally say in real life,” Salort said about her song lyrics. “It’s always so funny when I have to introduce a song and say what it’s like when the reason I wrote the song is because I don’t want to have to explain what I feel.”  

Salort played with bandmates Gabe and Tyler who were on drums and guitar. During their set, Salort performed two unreleased songs, “Housekeeping” and “We’re Not Friends” the latter of which had never been rehearsed before.  

“We had not practiced at all, and I had messed up because I didn’t know I came in right away, but when you mess up, it’s not the end of the world,” she said. “'We're not friends’ will come out soon, I haven’t released the date yet, but it’ll be soon, and ‘Housekeeping’ will come out sometime next year.”  

Salort grew nostalgic during the interview and shared what her early beginnings looked like.

“I had performed at this hotel cafe years ago and it was such a different time for me because I was singing songs that I wasn’t necessarily resonating with, and I was still getting used to everything,” she said as she reflected on the start of her career. “The thought of performing used to make me sick and now I’m just excited to sing songs that I love and resonate with. It’s great!”  

When asked to tell the audience what she wants people to know about her, she replied “I’m a singer-songwriter from New Jersey. I love songwriting. I love lyrics, I love performing and I love connecting with people through music.”  

As she sang up on stage, audience members sang along, waved at her and she waved back. New fans walked away saying things like, “I can totally relate to those lyrics,” and “I’ll definitely have to check her music out.”  

Salort’s performance at ACL was just a sneak peak of the stardom that’s to come, and Women in Media will be keeping an eye out! 

You can check out more of Ally Salort on her website.

About Me

Annabella Mireles is a creative writing MFA student at UTEP with her bachelor’s in digital media production. She is a freelance photographer and writer with works published in The Prospector Newspaper, Minero Magazine and The City Magazine.