Megan Moroney’s honest, sassy and mostly sad songs strike a chord with nearly every woman (and a few men!) that listens. However, her award-winning, chart-exploding single “Tennessee Orange” is a little more biographical, about her love for Georgia (go Dawgs!) and a happier, exciting love. The hit, which was the first single off her newly released debut album Lucky, was actually not meant to be the world’s “introduction” to the 25-year-old singer. “We weren’t even planning on actually releasing ‘Tennessee Orange.’ An opportunity came with Spotify and it happened to line up with football season, so that’s actually why Tennessee Orange got released,” Megan explained in an EXCLUSIVE interview with HollywoodLife. “It wasn’t this master plan that was like, ‘This is going to be the song that breaks me.’ It was just like, ‘What’s going to follow up EP?’ and an opportunity came and it was football season.”
Although Megan didn’t expect “Tennessee Orange” to take off as furiously as it did (it currently sits at number 7 on the Country US Airplay Chart), the rising star admitted that it ended up being the perfect song for fans to get to know her. “I think ‘Tennessee Orange’ was a great debut radio single to hav because I think in the song you learn a lot about me,” she said. “If you do listen to the words, then it’s like, okay, she’s from Georgia…you learn things about me. It has a lot of pedal steel guitar, it sounds really country and it’s a waltz and a love song.”
When Megan released “Tennessee Orange” in September 2022, she didn’t have a record deal, but things quickly changed after as the song blasted through the charts and she went on to win a CMT Music Award for Female Breakthrough Video of the Year. “There’s been so much that have happened that has happened the last few months!” the Georgia native gushed. “Hearing my song on the radio, just casually, not trying to hear it, just driving down the road and hearing it, I think that always stops me in my tracks.”
She also admitted that when hearing from fans who have resonated with her music has “meant the most.” “I feel like I have artists that have done that for me, so now to be an artist that gets to do that with other people has been one of the coolest things because when I was writing these songs, I wasn’t writing them in hopes that that would happen. I was writing them because I needed to say it… and the fact that they’re helping people in that way just makes it cool,” Megan gushed.
Her full-length debut album Lucky dropped just a few weeks ago and features heartbreakers like “Kansas Anymore,” “Sleep On My Side” and “Mustang or Me,” mixed with the bombshell blonde’s lovable sass in tracks “I’m Not Pretty,” “Georgia Girl” and the title track, “Lucky.” “I’ve obviously have written a lot more than 13 songs in the past year and a half, but when we were picking a track list, I always thought maybe my debut album would be self-titled because I wanted it be so me, like if I’m going to introduce myself into a genre, I want it to be like, ‘this is who I am.’ But, as I started to write these songs and pick them, I wanted each song to make you feel a different way, so on the track list there’s no two songs that make you feel the same way,” Megan explained. “I love storytelling and that’s what I love about songwriting, is that you can feel all the things. So, I wanted it to be 13 songs that just made you feel differently.”
Lucky is now available to stream wherever you get music, and be sure to to follow Megan Moroney on social to catch her on the road this summer and fall!