Rising country star Moroney discusses her rapid ascent to fame, the inspiration behind her new album Cloud 9, and the challenges of navigating success, including the pressure of public expectations.
Moroney is a self-described “emo cowgirl,” and her lunch outfit was actually a reference to one of her own heartfelt tracks. The most emotional song on her newest album, Cloud 9 , is called “Liars & Tigers & Bears.
” Within minutes, we’re deep in conversation about it, quoting lyrics back and forth. The care Moroney takes—the deep intention behind everything she posts or wears—might help explain how she went from Nashville hopeful to one of country music’s biggest stars in just about three years. In 2024 Moroney got a coveted opening slot on Kenny Chesney’s stadium tour, and released her sophomore effort Am I Okay? to widespread critical approval. Months later, she won the Country Music Association Award for new artist of the year. This week, Cloud 9 made its debut at the top of the Billboard 200. Naturally, great success presents a bit of a challenge for a woman whose early forays into songwriting birthed “sad song after sad song,” she says. While she was writing Cloud 9, she was feeling great. “There were shows that I would do last year that I was like, ‘I can’t believe this is my life.’” So Moroney channeled her happiness into her songs for a change. The album’s title track started as lyrical conceit—she was so blissed out that even if she slipped, she would still land on cloud nine. “Even though it was technically written about a relationship, when I look back at that song, it wasn’t just that that was making me so happy,” she says. “A lot of my dreams were coming true.” But like any good emo cowgirl, she was able to spot storm clouds even from her successful perch. In “Liars & Tigers & Bears,” Moroney compares the pressure of living in the public eye to facing snakes in the grass—as well as tigers and bears “It’s about expectations that people have, like: ‘Stay in your lane, but evolve and get better,’” Moroney says. “It’s like, unfortunately I am a human, and I’m trying really hard to make everybody happy. But that’s impossible.” That’s her talent: taking a familiar pop sentiment, wrapping it in wordplay and guitar riffs, and delivering it in her distinctive Lilith Fair rasp. “I don’t want to sing a verse that isn’t true,” she says. “It is not going to heal me if I’m just lying about it.” Still, she wants her stories to be relatable. Moroney remains close with friends she made in her sorority at the University of Georgia, and she uses them and other friends as a sounding board. Moroney says “Liars & Tigers & Bears” got the ultimate seal of approval. “My best friend’s a teacher, and she was like, ‘I relate to this song so much.’” While she was a college student, she started building a brand as an influencer. She supported herself through the money she made as an influencer when she first moved to Nashville seeking a music career. Her former life is reflected in her marketing savvy: Moroney dresses thematically every time she releases a new album, really committing to the bit. For years, while promoting Am I Okay?—which had cover art and merch in a striking cobalt—she only wore shades of blue. Cloud 9 is pink and tiger print; if you scroll through her Instagram page, you’ll see pink look after pink look. Social media had a starring role in her rise. Moroney first made waves with her single “Tennessee Orange,” which tells the story of a Georgia football fan going on a date with a supporter of the Tennessee Volunteers. The promotional photo shared on Instagram—showing Moroney wearing a gray and orange Vols shirt—set the country music conspiracy machine whirring. Her social media followers noticed that country star Morgan Wallen owned a similar shirt; days after the single was released, Wallen himself indicated to fans that he had given the shirt to Moroney. She confirmed that fact, but refused to say much more. More than a year later, Moroney went on Call Her Daddy and finally revealed that she and Wallen had in fact dated—but “never exclusively.” The interest in their relationship was educational for Moroney. “When you’re putting out details, people are going to sleuth!” she says now. “I definitely have tougher skin around all of that nowadays. I just don’t look at that shit. But it hasn’t stopped me from being honest.” The chatter did boost Moroney’s profile, but she also felt ambivalent about tying herself to another artist so early in her career. “I wanted to be my own person and put out my own things,” she says. Then again, there’s also something freeing about dropping breadcrumbs for the public. “I honestly feel like the more details I give the fewer questions I have to answer. It’s like, if you listen to that song and you’re confused about my stance, have you tried reading comprehension?” Between the thematic dressing, the dramatically different album eras, and the relationship speculation through song, it seems like Moroney has mastered the Taylor Swift career playbook. The next stop for her, though, won’t be a full pop crossover, or going exclusively country. “I just mainly didn’t want people to think I’m going off the deep end with it,” she says. “It was just not putting myself in a box.” She also deflects comparisons to Swift. Moroney is particularly inspired by Kacey Musgraves, an artist who’s balanced country success on her own terms with a pop-music-size audience. Musgraves’s first album, Same Trailer, Different Park, inspired Moroney to try songwriting. For Cloud 9, Moroney wrote “Bells & Whistles,” a song that sounded spiritually in tune with Musgraves’s debut. Then she got an idea. “I was like, This is nostalgic—maybe she’ll hear it too,” Moroney says. “I didn’t want to ask too much of the queen, just some background vocals. ‘Could you spare a few background vocals, so I can talk about it and die happy?’” Musgraves ultimately decided to sing on even more of the song. “I guess she loved the song. She sent it back and said, ‘Hope it’s okay, I just sang the second verse. Please don’t feel like you have to use it,’” Moroney says. “And I was like, girl.” Moroney also got Ed Sheeran to try out country music on the album. She first met the Brit during a songwriter session at Nashville’s Bluebird Café in March 2025. The pair immediately hit it off, thanks to their shared passion for melody and lyrics. “I’m such a nerd about songwriting that I literally am bouncing off the walls when I write a song,” she says. “I’ve never done drugs, but I’m sure it’s something along the lines of how you feel 24 to 48 hours after you write a song.” She and Sheeran kept in touch after the initial meeting with the hopes of eventually collaborating. “We emailed back and forth. I sent him a song and then he would send me a song,” Moroney says. “A month before the album was due, I just sent him the super-traditional country song and I was like, ‘Whatever—I’ve already sent him five songs that didn’t work before, so what’s a sixth going to hurt?’” Sheeran harmonizes with Moroney on “I Only Miss You,” and the British crooner sounds surprisingly at home on a classical country duet. Amid all of this, Moroney had to settle on a color for the Cloud 9 era. She didn’t choose pink on a whim. “It’s like a ruling-out process,” she says. She was debating a few different colors as she wrote songs—at one point orange was on the table. At the same time, “it’s all gut, no science—other than me just being like, This makes sense in my head, and I hope it makes sense in other people’s minds.” Nevertheless, the process was high-stakes enough that when she prank-called her creative director, CeCe Dawson, to say she was changing the color at the last minute, it practically led Dawson to tears. So pink will be her color for the next few years. She’s headlining arenas across the United States this summer for her Cloud 9 tour, and the costumes will include plenty of pink and tiger print. Moroney hopes that the next tour will be even bigger. Her ambitions range from serious to silly: “I want a wax figurine,” she says. “And I want a song that gets overplayed in retail stores.” But even if she gets there, she says the sad songs will still keep coming. “I’m a woman of the emo cowgirls and cowboys.”
Moroney Cloud 9 Country Music Album Success
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