Megan Moroney’s most recent country hit, “6 Months Later,” is like an answer song to Kelly Clarkson (or, sure, Nietzsche), with its great lyrical hook: “What doesn’t kill you calls you six months later” — followed by a bridge that declares, “What doesn’t kill you / Makes you stronger and blonder and hotter / Makes you wonder what you even saw in him at all.” The unspoken corollary to all that survival talk is: What doesn’t kill you can make for a top 10 country hit that positively slays.
Moroney is coming off a sophomore album, “Am I Okay?,” and a tour that felt like a genre-specific equivalent to a Taylor Swift show, with audiences of mostly young women shouting Moroney’s breakup lyrics back at her at venues like L.A.’s Greek Theatre, where she easily sold out two nights and could have done a third. (An arena tour just announced for next summer is bumping her up to the Crypto.com Arena and other venues at a level where the supply might meet the demand.) In other cities where there is actual public transportation, it’s easy to spot her crowd when she’s in town.
She color-codes her albums and tours, and “it was really cool to look out and see a sea of blue” on this latest outing — reflecting the chosen shade for “Am I Okay?” — “especially when we were in New York for Radio City. I had gotten a cold, so a doctor came and gave me some medicine and he was like, ‘So you’re the reason everyone on the subway was in white boots and blue everywhere.’ He was like, ‘I had no idea what was going on, but it was very culty.’ And I was like: Exactly — it’s the emo cowgirls and cowboys.”
Her just-announced third album, “Cloud 9,” will come with a fresh coat of paint, of course. “Surprise— the album’s pink,” she declares, having shown up for our interview in that color head-to-toe. “I chose pink because I think there is a softness about this music that isn’t in my other albums. And I think it’s come from the confidence that I have now. It’s about falling in out of love, but when you’re truly confident, it’s not the end of the world when it doesn’t work out — and my other albums, maybe I perceived it as the end of the world. This new music is more carefree and confident, so I thought pink was a perfect color to feel empowering and confident, but also soft.” On this forthcoming album, “There’s definitely still some heartbreakers… but even in the sad songs, it didn’t work out because I cut things off.” She may come off as softer, but by no means an incorrigible softie.
Moroney is proud to be receiving Variety’s Hitmakers Storyteller Award. “I gravitated towards country music at a young age because when you really pay attention to the lyrics, it puts you in that exact spot. I think the first song that I wrote that really accomplished that for me was ‘Hair Salon’. I think when you hear the first verse, it sets you right there in the hair salon. You can see it even though you have no idea what Bernadette looks like, but you’ve imagined someone in your head, and then each verse and bridge is not wasted, and the story progresses in each part of the song. I’ve just always connected to that kind of writing to that the most — the more detailed it is, the better. I think the most specific songs are the most relatable. Even ‘Miss Universe’ — I would guess that a lot of the people that love that song has have not personally been broken up with for a beauty queen, but because there’s so much detail in that song, I think it helps people that love to listen to music feel something.”
As one of country’s hottest live acts, Moroney is happy to find crowds “screaming the songs right at me with the same passion. I feel so close to my fans because it feels like a safe space to go through all of it together. And,” because of them, she says, “I feel really lucky that I get to go to the show every night.”
variety.com
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