Miss America Betty Cantrell hopes the country will get hooked on ‘Nicotine’

It might come as a surprise that a former Miss America who advocated healthy living would be promoting “Nicotine.”

But the 2016 national pageant queen isn’t encouraging folks to smoke, just get addicted to her upcoming first album.

“Here it is y’all! My official album cover for #Nicotine!!!” Betty Cantrell posted Tuesday on Facebook.

Cantrell, a Middle Georgia native who wowed the Miss America judges with her operatic voice, is launching her country music career in Nashville, Tennessee.

The cover shows images of the former brunette with her now golden, shoulder-length locks flowing as she turns her head before coming to rest with her hair covering her right eye in the final frame.

When asked on Facebook why “Nicotine?” Cantrell responded that she wrote the title song.

There was no story or incident that inspired it, she said.

“It just came to me!”

The singer, who put her studies on hold at Mercer University to compete in the Miss Georgia and Miss America pageants in 2015, had originally planned to pursue a career on Broadway before deciding to record country music.

She will debut her first CD at the Cox Capitol Theatre on Sept. 22 with tickets now on sale at coxcapitoltheatre.com.

“You’ve have always supported me, and so it’s time to bring it all back home to say ‘Thank you,’ ” she said in a video promoting the concert. “I can’t wait to see you there.”

This story was originally published August 23, 2017 at 1:42 PM with the headline "Miss America Betty Cantrell hopes the country will get hooked on ‘Nicotine’."