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Maddie and Tae are a super talented duo that has been taking the country world by storm the past few years. On Wednesday (Nov. 13), they’re appearing on Good Morning America ahead of performing at the 2019 Country Music Association Awards taking place that night in Nashville, Tenn.
The two are nominated for Vocal Duo of the Year for the 53rd annual CMAs, the capstone to a huge year in which they toured with country music superstar Carrie Underwood. Here’s what you need to know about this vivacious country duo.
1. The Girls Met in High School
Madison “Maddie” Marlow and Taylor “Tae” Dye are originally from Texas and Oklahoma, respectively — they are not sisters, however, despite the fact that they do share some resemblance. They actually met in high school when they were just 15 years old because they were using the same vocal coach. Once they became friends, they started traveling to Nashville on the weekends to perform together.
Once they graduated from high school, they made the Nashville move permanent, performing under the name “Sweet Aliana.” Then in 2014, they became the first signees for the newly-revived Dot Records label. Shortly thereafter they started off on their first radio tour, which they chronicled in a web series called “On the Road,” the first episode of which happened to coincide with Maddie’s 19th birthday.
“It’s been a crazy day … We’re doing great and this has been so much fun,” says Maddie, as they sign off at nearly 1 a.m. after their first couple days on tour.
2. Maddie and Tae Both Play Guitar
A performer playing the guitar in the country music world isn’t that unusual, but what is fairly unusual is that while Maddie plays right-handed guitar, Tae plays left-handed, which means she picks the guitar with her left hand. That’s not something you see very often in any genre of music.
Her guitar teacher growing up was Rick Roach of Roach Recording in Kingston, Okla. In a video of guitar hacks the girls made for the Grand Ole Opry, Tae says he always advised her to wrap her guitar cord around her guitar strap so that she wouldn’t step on it and accidentally pull it out.
“I didn’t even know that one, I’m gonna do that one! Because I have stepped on my cord plenty of times,” says Maddie, who in addition to the guitar also plays the mandolin.
3. Their Biggest Hit Skewers ‘Bro’ Country
Maddie and Tae hit it big right out of the gate with their 2014 hit “Girl in a Country Song,” which reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot Country charts. The song takes aim at so-called “bro” country, making references to Thomas Rhett’s “Get Me Some of That,” Chris Young’s “Aw Naw,” Tyler Farr’s “Redneck Crazy,” Jason Aldean’s “My Kinda Party,” “Dirt Road Anthem” and “Take a Little Ride” and Blake Shelton’s “Boys ‘Round Here.”
The idea of the song is that it’s looking at typical “country” things from a woman’s perspective because women are often marginalized in the genre. But Maddie and Tae didn’t intend the song to be mean, just fun and perhaps thought-provoking.
“Some people have said are you making fun of ‘bro country,’ are you trying to bash these boys? And that’s not what we’re doing at all,” Tae says in a radio interview. “We actually love these guys and we love these songs so much. We just wanted to come at it from a different perspective.”
Maddie adds, “You don’t get to hear the girl’s voice at all [in these songs]. It’s fun for us to get to take that on because you never hear the girl’s perspective.”
4. Maddie and Tae Have Toured With Some Big Names
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In 2016, the girls took to the road with Brad Paisley, who they say was just “amazing” to work with because of all the good advice he gave them.
“The first time we met him, we asked him how he stays inspired on the road and how he finds the time to write on the road because we knew we were going to be so busy,” Tae tells CBS News. “He said, ‘Don’t be closed off to anything. If you have an idea, write it down — don’t write it down later. Just write it down right away and you’ll thank yourself later.”
Then in 2019, they joined Carrie Underwood for her Cry Pretty tour, which was a huge rebound for them after a tumultuous time in between record labels after their label folded in 2017.
“There were times where we just didn’t know [if we had a future in country music],” Marlow told PEOPLE in a 2019 interview. “I mean, it was just hard because our fans are asking like, ‘Where’s new music?’ And we were like, we don’t even have a record company. Our whole world just got flipped upside down. We just kinda had to figure out how to recover. Now, having music out just makes all of those trials and all of those funky times so worth it. There’s always purpose for pain. There’s always something you can learn, and you can grow from it.”
5. Maddie and Tae are Both Spoken For
Sorry, all of you out there holding a candle for Tae and/or Maddie. Both women are in committed relationships.
Maddie has been engaged to Jonah Font since May 2018 — and the two originally got together back in high school. They broke up for a while but got back together during Marlow’s senior year. The wedding is planned for late 2019 — Marlow tells Taste of Country that they had to move the date twice; first for the Underwood tour and then for the 2019 CMAs.
Dye is also attached. She and songwriter Josh Kerr got engaged in September 2019 after a year of dating. Kerr’s credits include “Love Me Like You Mean It” by Kelsea Ballerini, “God Only Knows” by For King & Country, “My Girl” by Dylan Scott, and “Never Comin’ Down” by Keith Urban.
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