With “Tennessee Orange,” Megan Moroney debuted in country music triumphantly. The visual track, released late 2022, became popular organically.
Moroney, David Fanning, Paul Jenkins, and Ben Williams wrote “Tennessee Orange” as a lighthearted yet honest love song.
The song's immediate success garnered Moroney a major label deal with Arista Nashville (now Columbia Records) and a 2023 CMA Song of the Year nomination.
Williams explained “Tennessee Orange” to American Songwriter on the ASCAP Awards red carpet in November 2023. The award-winning songwriter recounts the song's creation below.
Once that happened, Megan called me and said, "Yay, glad you're joining." I thought of ‘Tennessee Orange’ and the Georgia hook last night. They term it sin.
I wear Tennessee orange for him. That was a great idea, but everything she gets enthusiastic about, I get excited about because she's the artist and wants to communicate what she believes in.
We wrote 95% that day. She rewrote the first and second verses, then we reunited two weeks before she cut it. We revised the last chorus to ‘And I still want the dogs to win.
We added that since she loves Georgia. She bleeds red and didn't want her Tennessee fandom to show. People relate to that when we play it live.”