Long before Panettiere became a charting singer on Nashville, she was already a Grammy nominee. In 2000, the then-10-year-old actress received a nomination for best spoken word album for children at the 42nd annual Grammy Awards for A Bug’s Life Read-Along, a companion audio recording based on the 1998 Pixar film. The Recording Academy recognizes Panettiere as a credited performer on the project, making her a Grammy nominee before she had even reached her teenage years.

Panettiere’s music career didn’t start with Nashville. Years before she was cast as country-pop star Juliette Barnes, Panettiere had already been recording music for film and television, including “I Fly” for Disney’s Ice Princess and “Try” for the movie Bridge to Terabithia. She also recorded songs for Tiger Cruise, The Dust Factory, Cinderella III: A Twist in Time, and other projects.

In 2008, however, Panettiere took steps toward establishing herself as a recording artist outside of her onscreen career. She released “Wake Up Call,” a reggae-infused pop song, as her first single that wasn’t connected to an acting role. The song was released digitally in August 2008 through Hollywood Records, which was also planning a debut album for Panettiere. Billboard covered the launch at that time, noting that the Heroes star was promoted through a major marketing campaign with Candie’s shoe and clothing brand, which helped fund the song’s music video and promoted it through a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign.

Though the planned album never materialized, “Wake Up Call” was an indication of what Panettiere could achieve in music.

Panettiere didn’t just perform country songs for Nashville. Her recordings as Juliette Barnes actually made an impact on the Billboard charts. During the show’s run, Panettiere landed 11 songs on the Hot Country Songs chart, including “Love Like Mine,” “Undermine” with Charles Esten, “Wrong Song” with Connie Britton, “For Your Glory,” “Boys and Buses,” “I’m a Girl,” “Consider Me,” and “Don’t Put Dirt on My Grave Just Yet.”

Nashville blurred the line between its fictional Music City and the real country music industry by featuring cast recordings and releasing songs commercially throughout its six-season run. For Panettiere, this meant that her portrayal of Juliette became an authentic musical aspect of her career, leaving behind a substantial Billboard chart history.

If there’s one song that best represents Panettiere’s musical legacy, it’s “Telescope.” Released in 2012 as the first single from The Music of Nashville: Season 1, Volume 1, this country-pop track was performed by Panettiere as Juliette Barnes. Written by real-life Nashville hitmakers Hillary Lindsey and Cary Barlowe and produced by Dann Huff, “Telescope” quickly became one of the most recognizable songs associated with the series.

The song peaked at No. 36 on Billboard‘s Hot Country Songs chart in December 2012, giving Panettiere one of the strongest chart placements of her music career. At that time, its success was notable because Nashville was doing something relatively unusual for a television series; it treated its fictional musicians’ recordings like legitimate commercial releases. Billboard reported in October 2012 that Panettiere had already debuted on the Country Digital Songs chart with “Love Like Mine,” while “Telescope” was promoted as the show’s first official single.

The show’s music became commercially successful in its own right, with the first soundtrack The Music of Nashville: Season 1, Volume 1 debuting at No. 14 on the Billboard 200 and No. 4 on Top Country Albums in 2012, selling 56,000 copies in its first week.

Panettiere’s vocals continued to feature across subsequent soundtrack releases throughout its six-season run, allowing fans to witness her musical evolution alongside her role as Juliette. Although Juliette was fictional, the songs performed by Panettiere reached real audiences and made their mark on actual Billboard charts.