Maren Morris’ ‘The Middle’ With Zedd, Grey Hits No. 1 on Pop Charts

Maren Morris is back at top on the charts, but this time it’s the pop charts. The 27-year-old, who had a No. 1 hit with the Thomas Rhett collaboration, “Craving You,” as well as her own No. 1 with “I Could Use a Love Song,” landed at the top of the Billboard Top 40 chart, with “The Middle,” her duet with producer Zedd and electronic duo Grey.

“I connected really heavily with the lyrics,” Morris says of working on “The Middle” (via Taste of Country) “Being a songwriter, I could really appreciate that. I loved the range and how much vocal exercising I got to do.”

Morris got to perform “The Middle” at the 2018 GRAMMY ceremony with Zedd and Grey, which she admits was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

“The GRAMMYs, it’s an iconic awards show. It’s all-genre,” Morris maintains. “Me, Zedd and Grey, we wouldn’t be likely collaborators since I’m from country, but it actually works so well and the Grammys is what that’s all about. I think it’s actually very appropriate.”

Zedd and Grey weren’t necessarily looking for a country artist to join them on the song, but after trying out so many different voices, it was the voice of Morris that worked the best.

“[Grey and I] went through roughly 15 different vocalists – mostly pop and lots of A-listers – but it just didn’t fit,” Zedd tells People. “The song is very emotional and real, so it has to be someone who could really carry it.”

Morris, who will hit the road with pop singer Niall Horan this summer, and sang with him on “Seeing Blind,” from his 2017 Flicker album, insists that the lines between country and pop music are already pretty blurred – at least for her.

“I think I’ll always be rooted in country,” she recently shared with PopCulture.com at a media event. “I’m from Texas. Those will be my roots, and I think all the lyrics to my songs are very country structured, the way that they’re written. I love to sing every type of genre. The Zedd song, and the Niall song – those where really amazing side hustles to get to do. Because, I just love being a part of this.”

“I don’t wanna stray to far from where I started because that’s me,” she continued, “but it’s fun to try on these different hats with other people’s projects. Because you can kind of slip into those roles and just have fun with it but I think I’ll always be rooted where I started, which is country, little bit pop, little bit 90s; it’s kind of all over the place.”

“The Middle” previously topped the Billboard Dance/Electronic Streaming Songs Chart, and is No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100, and No. 8 on the Hot AC Radio chart.

Download “The Middle” on iTunes.

Photo Credit: Instagram/Zedd