Maren Morris has no plans to become a ‘pop star’
Maren Morris won’t be making the transition to the “pop” music world anytime soon.
“Obviously this isn’t hilarious,” Morris, 33, said of the possible transition to pop stardom in a Tuesday, Nov. 28, interview with Variety honoring her as Changemaker of the Year.
“I’m not leaving Dodge. “I love living in Nashville, and I don’t consider myself a country music expat,” she continued. “There are so many great people here making music that matters. I am a piece of this city and I want to make it better the same way I want the music industry to be better.
Since she rose to fame, Morris has long advocated for various social issues within the country music industry. She has often advocated for better representation and treatment of the LGBTQ+ community, and made headlines last year for her public feud with Jason Aldean and his wife, Brittany Aldean, about gender-affirming care for young people. After Tucker Carlson Calling Morris a “crazy country music person” for her stance in support of transgender people, Morris hit back by selling T-shirts with the phrase to benefit GLAAD’s Transgender Media Program and the Trans Lifeline.
Maren Morris’ most critical quotes about the country music industry
Maren Morris is not afraid to use her voice, even if it means speaking out against her fellow countrymen. Morris first entered the country music scene with her self-titled EP in 2015. She’s been making music and headlines ever since. The “Circles Around This Town” singer has never shied away from it […]
“I don’t consider myself a bad guy or anything; I just got so sick of being a yes person to get ahead,” she shared Variety of her attempts at change. ‘I have been successful, but – I think – at a moral cost. I couldn’t keep doing the same song and dance.”
Morris has also called for better diversity within the genre. In the wake of the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, Morris recalled accepting an award at the CMA Awards and being shocked by what she saw in the audience.
“I looked around at the crowd and for the first time simply realized that there were actually only white people there,” she said. “I wish I had woken up earlier.”
Now Morris is distancing himself from the country music institution. “I thought I’d like to burn it to the ground and start over,” she told the newspaper Los Angeles Times in an interview in September. “But it’s burning itself down without my help.”
Morris later clarified her “hyperbolic” comments, calling the idea of her exciting country music completely “ridiculous.”
“I felt like I didn’t want to say goodbye, but I really can’t participate in the really toxic arms of this institution anymore,” she explained during an October episode of The New York Times’ Podcast ‘Popcast’revealing that she will no longer be submitting her music to country music-based awards shows.
“I don’t know if it’s forever,” she continued. “I don’t shut down country music fans, otherwise that’s not my intention. It’s just the music industry that I have to step away from, some factions of it.”
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Country music’s biggest names over the years haven’t been afraid to go head-to-head, trading blows on social media, making out at awards shows and more. In 2015, several female artists came together to fire back at radio personality Keith Hill, amid his comments about why he plays more male artists on air. The controversy was dubbed ‘Tomato-gate’. […]
Morris said her advocacy has caused enormous backlash in recent years. The singer said people told her, “You don’t belong here,” which made her see “the writing on the wall” for her future.
“I think when I zoomed out and looked at cold hard facts… this is getting significantly worse every year for people on the margins, and women in general,” she said during her “Popcast” appearance. “It hasn’t improved, it hasn’t even stabilized yet. It has gotten worse.”