Who knows. I can’t imagine it was a well thought out plan.
And what was the band thinking? and the music coach? and whatever production team they've assembled to guide these kids?
And therein lies what bugs me the most.
Remember when the phrase "flyover country" first came into the political scene? It was a sneering, derisive, dismissive description of the American Heartland. What we heard Kristy Lee sing is a symptom of the same sneering, derisive, dismissive attitude. What we heard was what some Hollywood urbanite artist (or worse yet - Kristy Lee, herself) thinks country music sounds or thinks that's how people out in flyover country would play it. How arrogant.
Either that or some dweeb discovered the pre-programmed "country" rhythm on his MIDI keyboard.
Either way, it was just bad.