Madison “Maddie” Font and Taylor “Tae” Kerr started their careers with a splash, topping the Billboard Country Airplay chart in 2014 with their debut single, “Girl in a Country Song,” when they were both nineteen. Today, the two young women known as Maddie & Tae are among country’s most successful duos, so far earning six Academy of Country Music nominations for Duo of the Year and six Country Music Association nominations for Vocal Duo of the Year.

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The two grew up over 400 miles apart—Maddie in Sugarland, Texas, and Tae in Ada, Oklahoma—but they shared the same voice teacher. They met in 2010 at a Dallas vocal showcase when they were fifteen years old, and they quickly made two discoveries: they shared a fierce ambition for a country music career, and their voices blended well. Fast friends, they formed a duo and began writing songs together, as well as traveling back and forth to Nashville to lay the groundwork to become recording artists. After graduating from high school, they moved to Nashville and soon co-wrote “Girl in a Country Song” as a feisty response to “bro-country,” a popular style of country music that celebrates a party-hearty male perspective. The song attracted a recording contract, and its release in July 2014 led to them being the first female duo to have a debut single on a Billboard country chart since 2006.

Maddie & Tae have since gone on to record two albums and four EPs, release several singles, and in 2020, they earned their second #1 with “Die from a Broken Heart,” another song they co-wrote. In fact, they share songwriting credits on almost all of their music, having learned that their songwriting styles are as compatible as their voices. Their lyrics are based mainly on their personal experiences.

“Writing is probably one of our favorite parts of the entire process,” Tae says, “because it really is just us going into a room and telling our co-writers what’s going on in our lives and making a song about that, and it’s really special. That’s one of the ways we get to connect with our fans, too. When we write a song and we send it to them, or it’s out on the album, and they tell us their story that relates to that, it’s so special.”

Maddie credits the duo’s chemistry—both musical and personal—for their success. “We’re really grateful for the friendship that we’ve built over the past ten years,” she says, “because it’s that foundation and that strength that has persevered through so many crazy times throughout our career and just throughout our life. I couldn’t imagine being a solo artist going through all of that by myself.”

SONGS TO CHECK OUT:
“Die from a Broken Heart”
“Fly”
“Friends Don’t”
“Girl in a Country Song”
“Trying on Rings”
“Woman You Got”