Maren Morris

Morris was born in Arlington, Texas, to Greg and Kellie Morris.[6] She has a younger sister, Karsen.[6] As a child, she spent most of her time at her parents' hair salon.[6] When Maren was 12, her father bought her a guitar and she fell in love with it.[6] Her music recording career started in 2005, with her debut studio album, Walk On, released on June 14, 2005, by Mozzi Blozzi Music.[7] Her subsequent release, All That it Takes, was released on October 22, 2007, by Smith Entertainment.[7] She graduated from the University of North Texas in 2010.[8] Her third release, Live Wire, was released in 2011, by Mozzi Blozzi Music.[7] Her major label debut album Hero was released to critical acclaim in 2016.[9] Maren spent several years in Nashville writing songs for other artists, including "Last Turn Home" on Tim McGraw's 2014 album Sundown Heaven Town,[10] and "Second Wind", which Kelly Clarkson sang on her 2015 album Piece by Piece.[11]

Morris initially self-released five songs as an eponymous extended play, Maren Morris, on Spotify in August 2015.[12] The songs gained 2.5 million streams on Spotify in a month, with three songs appearing on Spotify's US and Global "Viral 50" chart. The success of Morris' EP attracted the interest of major labels, and she was signed to Columbia Nashville in September 2015.[13][14] The label re-released the five-song EP, on November 6, 2015, with "My Church" the lead single.[15] Following airplay on country radio, along with several in-studio appearances on satellite radio, this EP charted on two Billboard charts—number 27 on the Country Albums chart and number one on the Top Heatseekers chart[16]—and sold 2,400 copies in its debut week.[17] "My Church" reached number five on the Hot Country Songs chart and was certified Gold by the RIAA.[18]

With the success of "My Church", Morris released her major label studio album on June 3, 2016, the week she started a tour with Keith Urban.[14] The album debuted and peaked at number five on the Billboard 200 chart, and number one on the Top Country Albums chart.[19]

Her debut single from the project, "My Church", hit number one on the Country Digital Songs chart in 2016 and reached the top five on the US Hot Country Songs chart.[20]

Hero earned Morris four Grammy Award nominations at the 59th Annual Grammy Awards. The album was nominated for Best Country Album, "My Church" won Best Country Solo Performance and was nominated for Best Country Song. Morris was also nominated for the all-genre honor of Best New Artist, but lost to Chance The Rapper.[21] She was honored at Billboard Women in Music 2016 with the Breakthrough Star Award,[22] and received the Breakthrough Artist Award at Music Biz 2017.[23]

Morris embarked on the Hero Tour in 2017, in support of her album.[24] She joined Sam Hunt for his 15 in a 30 Tour later that year.[25][26] A deluxe edition of Hero was released in March 2017, featuring the songs "Bummin' Cigarettes," "Space" and "Company You Keep."[27]

In response to the 2017 Las Vegas Strip shooting, Morris released "Dear Hate", a song she had written and recorded with Vince Gill, with all proceeds from the track going to the Music City Cares Fund.[28]

She provided vocals on the song "Craving You" with Thomas Rhett in 2017.[29] Morris was also featured on Niall Horan's song "Seeing Blind", released in October 2017.[30] She later opened for Horan on his 2018 Flicker World Tour.[31] She collaborated with Zedd and Grey on "The Middle", released in January 2018.[32] That single, which combined elements of country, pop, and electronic dance music, reached No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100.[33] On October 5, 2018, Morris appeared as a special guest during Taylor Swift's Reputation Stadium Tour in Arlington, Texas, performing "The Middle" with Swift.[34]

In January 2019, Morris released the lead single "Girl" from her upcoming second major label studio album of the same name and simultaneously announced a worldwide concert, Girl: The World Tour, to support the album which was released on March 8. The tour began on March 9 in Chicago, and concluded on August 23, 2019 in Canberra, Australia.[35] In March, it was announced that Morris would be forming a group with Brandi Carlile, Amanda Shires and Natalie Hemby called The Highwomen (in reference to The Highwaymen), often joined by a rotating line-up of guests, such as Sheryl Crow, Chely Wright, Margo Price and Courtney Marie Andrews. A social media post by Shires' husband Jason Isbell hinted that the group had already begun recording with producer Dave Cobb.[36] The Highwomen made their live debut, alongside new member Natalie Hemby on April 1, 2019 at Loretta Lynn's 87th birthday concert performing "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels".[37] "Redesigning Women" was released on July 19, 2019 as the first single from their self-titled debut album released on September 6, 2019, which had top-ten debut on Billboard 200 and number one on the Country Chart.[38][39]

In 2020, "The Bones", the second official single from Girl peaked at #12 on the Billboard Hot 100, and topped the Country Airplay and Hot County Songs charts.[40]

On June 12, 2020 Maren released two new songs titled "Just For Now" & "Takes Two" as part of the GIRL deluxe edition.

In July 2018, it was announced that Morris would perform at Brandi Carlile's upcoming music festival called Girls Just Wanna Weekend. It took place in January 2019 in Mexico.[46]