After swimming in royal-blue seas of heartbreak and introspection on last year’s Am I Okay?, Megan Moroney has reached a brighter day. Country music’s favorite “emo cowgirl” stepped into the Bridgestone Arena for Wednesday’s (Nov. 19) CMA Awards with six nominations, tying Ella Langley and Lainey Wilson for the most of any artist. Am I Okay? and its title track picked up three nods, including song of the year, album of the year, and music video of the year. So, with her third album just around the corner, Moroney celebrated her sophomore record while welcoming in a brand-new era with her sassy performance of “6 Months Later.”
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Megan Moroney Rocks CMA Awards With “6 Months Later” Performance
With her trademark dark humor and (usually) deceptively upbeat melodies, “6 Months Later” offers the perfect bridge into Megan Moroney’s next career phase. The track finds its narrator on the other side of heartbreak: I was barely alive, out of six feet deep, I was five / Pretty sure they called a hearse outside / Okay, that’s dramatic, but I survived.
MEGAN MORONEY EVERYBODY 👏🏻👏🏻🩷 #CMAawards pic.twitter.com/RJy9FIjaMv
— noelle 🇵🇸🐾❤️🔥 (@noellewes123) November 20, 2025
True to her word, the 2024 New Artist of the Year delivered a “very, very pink” performance, as Moroney told Variety ahead of the ceremony. “6 Months Later” is the lead single off Moroney’s upcoming third album Cloud Nine, due out Feb. 20. Where she embraced emerald green and royal blue during her previous two album releases, this one sees her leaning into a softer shade.
“I chose pink because I think there is a softness about this music that isn’t in my other albums,” she said. “And I think it’s come from the confidence that I have now… So I thought pink was a perfect color to feel empowering and confident, but also soft, and that’s what the new music is like.”
[RELATED: Here’s Every Artist Performing at Tonight’s 2025 CMA Awards]
‘Cloud Nine’ is Her Third Album
Since releasing her 2022 viral breakout hit “Tennessee Orange,” Megan Moroney’s star has soared. Cloud Nine marks her third full-length album in as many years. As the “Beautiful Things” singer, 28, explained to Variety, she has been able to chart her own emotional growth through her songwriting catalog.
“I even think the girl that wrote ‘Girl in the Mirror’ couldn’t have written ‘Beautiful Things.’ Because in ‘Beautiful Things,’ not only do I know I’m worth it, I feel qualified to tell other people that they’re worth it too,” she said. “And I think that’s just a really cool, natural way to see the growth of just who I am and who I’m becoming.”
Featured image by Terry Wyatt/Getty Images for SESAC
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