MADDIE & TAE have something. Writing a song scoffing at the nameless bootie-short-sporting hotties the bro-cos seem to like, Maddie Marlow and Tae Dye signed a deal as Big Machine’s first act on the historic Dot label while recording “Girl In A Country Song.” Rushed into the studio, then straight to country radio, Maddie & Tae struck a nerve: mining Entertainment Weekly, The New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly, USA Today, RollingStone and NPR, followed by Late Show with David Letterman, TODAY and Entertainment Tonight, then an RIAA GOLD-certified single as the turn-around’s-fair-play single hit the Top 5.
The Ada, Oklahoman and Sugar Land, Texan are the first female act ineight years to top the Country Singles chart with their debut single “Girl In A Country Song.”
“That’s crazy,” Maddie marvels. “When Tae and I got our publishing deal, we wanted to write songs from a young woman’s perspective about all the things in life. Who knew that a song about wanting to be more than a girl in Daisy Dukes and a bikini top would hit people like this?”
Obviously BMLG President & CEO Scott Borchetta, who upon hearing the song fast-tracked their deal. And every country radio station in America, who put “Girl In A Country Song” in rotation with all the songs it was sending up, watching the phones light up as their airplay helped drive the table-turning guy-objectification video well past 14 million Vevo views.
“You dream about having a #1 song,” says Tae. “Everyone does. We’re just two girls, living a dream, writing our songs and getting to go out on the road and play for people. That’s a pretty big ‘wow’ in itself…”
“Wow!” moments are becoming a big part of Maddie & Tae’s reality. Rolling Stone cited them one of 10 New Artists You Need To Know across all genres and their self-titled EP hit Billboard’s Twitter Emerging Artist Chart at #1. NPR’s Ann Powers proclaimed, “they’re songwriters, powerful harmonizers and in the video for ‘Girl In A Country Song,’ natural comediennes…” CMT tapped them for their Next Women of Country designation and they’ve been added to Country Radio Seminar’s New Faces show, in addition to being courted for some of 2015’s hottest tours.
“There’s so much more to Maddie and every other girl we know than how we look so we decided to share another side of the story,” picks up Tae. “We couldn’t stop screaming when they told us the news because it humbles us even more to know this is something people wanted to hear. We didn’t want to get our hopes up when our incredible team told us it looked good for the #1 spot because we just got here.”
Maddie continues, “we’re here to have our songs be heard … but the way this whole thing happened? Well, just wow.”
