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Exclusive Interview with Madeline Merlo
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Jun 10, 2025
Madeline Merlo talks about her time on Songland, the Lady A song that changed her life and career, new music and more.
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0:00
hey guys it's Gail with Everything Nash
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backstage at Sam Fest with Maline Merllo
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good to see you good to see you too we
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have things to talk about of course I
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want to go back to the beginning because
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you and I have not spoken in person
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about this songland talk about that
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experience oh my gosh songland was
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incredible um you know it was a show on
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NBC that was like a songwriting
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competition show that just like came
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together so randomly and completely
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changed my life i mean it kicked open so
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many doors as a songwriter and an artist
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and um yeah I just feel like it was a
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gamechanging moment and just a blessing
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from God honestly and game changing
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moment i remember I'm not even joking
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where I was sitting at my desk when I
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got the press release that Lady A was
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releasing Champagne Night which was a
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surprise because they had more singles
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to come off of their album and they
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pivoted
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because they heard Champagne Night and
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wanted to record it talk about that yeah
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so they had a current song at radio at
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the time that was like doing well and no
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other song from that show had ever gone
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to be a radio single or anything so I
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mean there wasn't even like a hope that
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I was thinking about like I had
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absolutely no idea and so I just got an
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email that said they wanted to zoom on
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Monday cuz this was during co this is
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during co I was like okay um and I
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thought they were going to say you know
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we're so excited because it it did I
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think our episode was the most watched
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episode and it got a really great
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reaction i just thought they were going
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to be like this was so great i don't
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know not expecting that and they were
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like yeah we're putting it to radio and
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all my wildest dreams came true and it
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was three week number one song so just
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one of those things that's the magical
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thing about the music industry in
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Nashville it's just like you just never
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know what's going to happen what
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opportunities are going to happen and
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they just got to say yes and show up and
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you know I don't know it was so cool i
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didn't realize till I was googling you
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this week and I don't know how I didn't
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know this you're from Canada talk about
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that yes i grew up um on the west coast
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of Canada kind of just like right above
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Seattle um and yeah I grew up like
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riding horses a pretty small town um and
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then have been in Nashville like eight
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years do you miss it yeah I mean it's
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such a beautiful part of the world and
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my family being over there and that's
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like the main thing i miss them all the
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time it's difficult being away from them
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but they love Nashville and come visit
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all the time i mean I'm from
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Pennsylvania i miss the weather
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cuz it's hot here totally yeah it's very
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hot very humid in the summer new music
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one house down from the girl next door
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what can you tell me yeah so um projects
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called One House Down the Girl Next Door
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and I feel like it just kind of takes
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you through a bit of a journey starting
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kind of in a real heartbreak moment and
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then by the end you kind of end up
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exactly where you're supposed to be and
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really this project is about trusting
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your gut following your instinct and um
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I started writing it there was a few
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songs that just started to kind of make
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sense putting them all together and it
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was cool to do kind of a project that
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told like a real story about a
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relationship and um yeah it's it's a
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really special project really proud of
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it keith Urban yes keith Urban does a
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guitar solo in the title track which is
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crazy i literally just like my I told my
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producer I was like "It sounds like a
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Keith Urban song." like it had that kind
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of energy to it and um my producer Zach
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Crawl knows him and I was like can you
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just ask him and um just went for it and
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he was like sure which is insane because
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Keith Urban is the nicest human i said
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it I said it is the nicest human true i
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also learned something are you the one I
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know you sing you did some background
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vocals for some people and you did Cole
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Swindell's song you're doing that
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fabulous female riff in that song that's
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me yeah y'all that is amazing how Yeah
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um honestly it was a super random
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scenario as well where my producer was
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working on that song and he had this
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idea to have it kind of going in the
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background but because the original
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track is in a different key um Jody
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sounded kind of like a chipmunk and he's
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like "Can you just prove a concept it's
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not you know going anywhere i just want
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to hear what it would sound like to have
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that that voice in the background." And
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so I'm like "Yeah of course." And so I
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just did it randomly when I was over one
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day and it just like sounded cool and he
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was like "Oh I think we're going to add
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it to the track." And boom it was on the
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radio and then I honestly started a bit
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of a background vocal thing i sang on
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Jelly Roll stuff and Dustin stuff and
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Sam Hunt stuff and Connor Smith stuff so
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um yeah just like and I Moonlight as a
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background singer which is really fun i
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really like it a lot shame she's not
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talented okay I got to let you go
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because we all have lots of interviews
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today what else is happening for you
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what can we look forward to from you
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yeah I mean we just put out a brand new
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version of my new kind of focus track
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Middle of the Bed which I love so much
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um and we're just like playing a ton
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this summer and started to kind of write
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for the next project which is so
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exciting and playing the oprey next week
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and so yeah there's a lot of kind of
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exciting things on the horizon and um
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lots to look forward to well I think
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you're fabulous thank you maline Maline
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Merlo I can speak maline Merllo
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