Background and career
Maren Larae Morris (born April 10, 1990) is an American singer and songwriter. Her music has been described as country pop incorporating elements of R&B, hip-hop, and rock. Her accolades include a Grammy Award, an American Music Award, five Country Music Association Awards, and five Academy of Country Music Awards. Morris's debut single, "My Church", from her major-label debut studio album, Hero (2016), became her breakout single at country radio and was followed by the commercially successful songs "80s Mercedes", "I Could Use a Love Song", and "Rich". In 2018, she was featured on the song "The Middle", written by Grey and Zedd, which reached the top ten in various countries. Her second studio album, titled Girl, followed in 2019; it included number one US Country Airplay single "Girl" and number one Hot Country single "The Bones". Morris's third studio album, Humble Quest (2022), earned her a Guinness World Records for most first-day and first-week streams for a country album by a female artist on Amazon Music. Dreamsicle was released as her fourth studio album in 2025, failing to enter the both US Billboard 200 and Top Country Albums charts. In addition to her solo work, Morris has recorded as a member of the Highwomen. She had two albums certified for sales certifications in North America and has scored three number one songs on the Country Airplay chart as well as eight top ten songs on the Hot Country Songs chart. In 2018, Morris was featured in Forbes's 30 Under 30 list. Out magazine recognized her as one of the most impactful and influential LGBTQ artists of 2024, and she was included on the Billboard Decade-End of the top 50 most successful Country Artists of the 2010s. In 2024, she was included on the Billboard list of the 100 Greatest Country Artists of All Time.
Maren Larae Morris was born on April 10, 1990, in Arlington, Texas to Scott and Kellie Morris, who met at a bar in Dallas where they both worked. Morris was named after actress Maren Jensen, whose name Kellie came across while watching Battlestar Galactica. She has a sister, Karsen, who is 3 years younger. Morris's parents owned the Maren Karsen Aveda Hair Salon, and Morris spent much of her childhood at the salon. She later worked there as a front desk clerk and guest coordinator. In elementary school, she participated in the school choir, performed theater, and played soccer. In the early 1990s, her mother's uncle, who was gay, died of AIDS and Morris's parents' values of equality later led to her being a supporter of LGBTQ+ rights. When Morris was around nine years old, at a party at her house for salon employees, she performed a karaoke version of "Blue" by LeAnn Rimes, who she idolized, at which time her parents discovered that she could sing. In September 2000, aged 11, one of Morris's first performances was at Johnnie High's, a country music talent show similar in style to the Grand Ole Opry. From that moment, Morris realized that "this [singing] is my calling". When she was 12, her father bought her an acoustic Ibanez guitar and taught her a few chords, which inspired her to start writing songs. She went to James Bowie High School in Arlington where she continued to play soccer, graduating in 2008. Her favorite classes were creative writing and art.
Morris started touring her home state of Texas when she was 11 years old. Her father acted as her roadie, manager, and booking agent. Morris often performed in bars and clubs in Dallas and Fort Worth. She considered music to be her "weekend job". In 2005, Morris was one of several high school students from across the country selected to attend a Grammy Awards camp sponsored by the Grammy Foundation. She took her first plane trip alone to attend the camp, where she met David Foster, Paul Williams, and Jimmy Jam. That year, at the age of 15, Morris released her debut studio album titled Walk On, released on the independent Mozzi Bozzi label and containing ten tracks of mostly self written material. The record was financed by her parents who "literally sold the furniture out of the house" to pay for its recording and release, according to her mother. Smith Music released Morris's second studio album in 2007, titled All That It Takes, which also contained mostly self-composed tracks. In her late teens, Morris auditioned for American Idol, America's Got Talent, The Voice, and Nashville Star and was rejected from each. Years later, Morris felt vindicated when her songs were used by contestants performing on American Idol. In 2010, Morris enrolled at the University of North Texas but left after one semester. Morris also joined a teen band called They Were Stars, with whom she played keyboards and provided harmony vocals. In 2011, the Mozzi Bozzi label released her third studio disc titled Live Wire. Kacey Musgraves, whom Morris had met on the Texas music scene and lived in Nashville, encouraged Morris to also move to Nashville. After saving a few thousand dollars, in 2013, at 22 years old, Morris packed a U-Haul trailer and moved to Nashville. Morris spent her first year in Nashville networking and meeting other writers. She was introduced to Carla Wallace, co-owner of Big Yellow Dog Music, a music publisher. Impressed by her songwriting, Wallace signed her to a four-year songwriting contract with the company. She began co-writing material with other songwriters, and her material was soon recorded by several country artists. Tim McGraw recorded "Last Turn Home" for his 2014 album Sundown Heaven Town. During a writing session for the song, she met future husband Ryan Hurd. "Second Wind" was recorded by Kelly Clarkson for her 2015 album Piece by Piece. Some of her material was more personal, and Morris was encouraged by Wallace to start recording music herself. After listening to the demo recording of "My Church", which she wrote in March 2015, Morris realized she wanted to sing the song herself. It was also around this time that she met record producer Busbee, who produced the song.
Morris self-released five songs on eponymous extended play (EP), Maren Morris, via Spotify in August 2015. 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's EP attracted the interest of major labels, and she was signed to Columbia Nashville, an imprint of Sony Music Nashville, in September. The label re-released the five-song EP in November, and "My Church" was issued as the lead single. The EP charted at number 22 on the US Top Country Albums chart and number one on the Top Heatseekers chart. "My Church" peaked at number five on the US Hot Country Songs, number nine on the US Country Airplay, and number three on the Canada Country charts. In January 2018, Morris won Best Country Solo Performance for the song at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards. Her first Columbia Nashville album was released in June 2016, titled Hero. In the United States, it reached number five on the Billboard 200, and number one on the Top Country Albums chart. Joe Caramanica of The New York Times called Hero "both utterly of its moment and also savvy enough to indicate how the future might sound". Hero included three additional singles: "80's Mercedes", "I Could Use a Love Song" and "Rich". With the exception of "80's Mercedes", the singles reached the top ten of the Billboard country charts between 2016 and 2018. Morris embarked on a tour, Ripcord World Tour, with Keith Urban in 2016. This was followed by the headlining Hero tour in 2017. A deluxe edition of Hero was released in March 2017, featuring three new recordings. She also provided vocals to Thomas Rhett's "Craving You", released in April 2017. Morris was also featured on Niall Horan's song "Seeing Blind", released in June 2018 and opened for Horan on his Flicker World Tour in 2018. In response to the 2017 Las Vegas 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. Morris earned Best New Artist accolade from the Country Music Association and several more Grammy nominations.
Morris was chosen by Zedd and Grey to provide the lead vocals for their pop single "The Middle", released in January 2018. The track became her breakout pop crossover single and expanded her audience. "The Middle" peaked at number five on the US Billboard Hot 100. Taylor Weatherby of Billboard commented that the song "may have drawn the roadmap for a reliable new path to crossover success." On October 5, 2018, Morris performed as a special guest during Taylor Swift's Reputation Stadium Tour in Arlington, Texas, performing "The Middle" with Swift. Morris's next studio album Girl was released on March 8, 2019. According to Morris, the songs reflected her own experiences as a young woman while also highlighting the experiences of other women her age. Rolling Stone rated the album three and a half stars, calling it "where Morris makes her pop move". It topped the Billboard country albums chart and the reached the top five of the Billboard 200. She embarked on Girl: The World Tour in 2019. Its lead single of the same name reached the number one spot on the US Country Airplay chart and number eight on the US Country Songs chart. It was followed by the second single "The Bones", which topped both the Country Airplay and Country Songs charts in 2020. A duet version with Hozier became her second crossover pop hit, peaking at number 12 on the Hot 100 and number one on the adult contemporary chart. Girl won Album of the Year at the 2019 Country Music Association Awards.
In March 2019, Morris formed a group with Brandi Carlile, Amanda Shires and Natalie Hemby called The Highwomen (in reference to The Highwaymen) and began recording with producer Dave Cobb. The Highwomen made their live debut in April 2019 at Loretta Lynn's 87th birthday concert performing "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels". "Redesigning Women" was released in July 2019 as the first single from the group's self-titled debut album, The Highwomen, which was released in September 2019. The album had a top-ten debut on the US Billboard 200 and number one on the Country Chart. Busbee died in September 2019. In 2020, Morris herself won Female Vocalist of the Year at the Country Music Association Awards and Female Artist of the Year at the Academy of Country Music Awards in both 2020 and 2021.
