With a crystalline country vocal and an international rep for writing vivid scenes of emotional insight, BBR Music Group/BMG Nashville artist Madeline Merlo is a rising star with an old soul and a new school style. To her, dreams aren’t just for those who have it all figured out.

Already a Platinum-certified No. 1 songwriter poised to be a breakout artist, Merlo’s new project ONE HOUSE DOWN (from the girl next door) finds a lifelong striver embracing her own imperfect perfection, and hopefully spreading the word.

“I’m a very deep feeler. I always say I feel like my heart’s on fire all the time,” Merlo admits. “It’s a superpower, but it’s also hard because the world can feel really heavy sometimes. This project is my struggle through finding myself and finding myself in love, and I wrote these songs for my younger self – for those moments when she really needed them.”

A small-town native helming from the blueberry fields of British Columbia, the Canadian standout’s deep-feeling musical connection started with some of her earliest core memories. Merlo recalls countless holiday family sing-alongs, and after soaking in a musical mix of classic soul and R&B – plus ‘90s country and the powerhouse vocals of everyone from Aretha Franklin to Dolly Parton, Martina McBride and Faith Hill – the young dreamer attended a Shania Twain concert as her first show, proclaiming her intention to be a singer on a second-grade school project. 

Her songwriting habit began early, too. Often re-writing the lyrics to her favorite songs for fun, Merlo soon began penning her own compositions – and her natural talent was so obvious, she started visiting Nashville on songwriting trips at just 16. It felt like the right path, but also made her “different.”

“I just felt like my arrow was always pointed towards music,” she explains. “I was the one who sang the anthem at the basketball game. I even sang at prom. On my high school graduation, I was like, ‘I’m going to Nashville, and I’m going to be a singer.’ And everyone was like ‘… Okay, sure.’ But I did, and I ended up doing the thing.”

She would go on to stand out from every crowd she was in. Signing a record deal at the tender age of 18, she found fast success at Canadian country radio and earned the CCMA Rising Star award in 2015. By 2020 she had crossed the border and took another unconventional leap, competing on Season 2 of NBC songwriting reality series Songland – and coming out a winner. Her dressed-down anthem of easy confidence “Champagne Night” became a Platinum-certified three-week No. 1 for Lady A, opening the door for Merlo’s artistic dreams and helping her trust her instincts. 

She quickly dropped the sassy country/funk and soul single “It Didn't,” racking up more than 10 million Spotify streams to date and followed with the gravel-road pop of her Slide EP in 2022. Now, after being named to CMT’s Next Women of Country class of 2024, being just a bit different is the point.

Merlo calls ONE HOUSE DOWN (from the girl next door) her most emotionally insightful project yet – a six-song message of self-worth that comes with a superstar boost and plays to her creative strength. Representing a “sonic elevation” of heart pounding modern country and breathtaking, beam-of-light vocals – both tender and untamed at the same time – the set was produced by progressive-minded hitmaker Zach Crowell (Sam Hunt, Luke Bryan, Dustin Lynch), and came into focus with the title track – “ONE HOUSE DOWN (from the girl next door),” backed by guitar melodies from none other than Keith Urban.

“When I wrote that song, it felt so representative of me and my whole life,” she says. “I always felt like I was one house down from people with perfect lives and perfect families. And I know that’s not true, but that otherness and not feeling good enough has impacted me in different ways. One of them was through love – I feel like I’ve always stumbled my way through it.”

The project begins in the early aftermath of such a stumble, with “Broken Heart Thing (feat. Dustin Lynch)” expressing the unsteady footing a breakup always brings. Matching a soothing acoustic melody with quiet desperation and a one-two punch of vocal reverb, a pair of wounded hearts struggle to move on after everything has changed – forced to mask their feelings of uncertain grief. 

From there Merlo’s story progresses through the stages of romantic recovery, with slow burning tracks like “Bar Fight,” depicting a knock-down drag-out battle between the head and heart. Her tender vocal and sweeping sonics capture a soul torn between giving in and going back or staying strong (but lonely). Likewise, the cinematic power ballad “Same Car” captures the paralyzing shock of returning to the scene of so much love, after the engine driving it has broken down for good. In “Middle of the Bed,” the last shred of post-leaving doubt seems to hit at the worst possible moment.

Written early in the project process, that striking roots-pop stunner writhes and aches with restless energy – an anthemic breakup banger lost in the pain of a midnight memory. A credit to Merlo’s skill in capturing emotional turmoil, her confidence falls like the waterfall vocal of the track’s chorus hook. 

“It’s like, ‘Okay, this breakup is the right thing to do. I feel good about this. I feel strong about this decision,’” she describes. ”And then in the middle of the night, your subconscious is reaching for this person still. It’s just these really intricate, zoomed-in moments and complexities of going through a heartbreak, but ultimately you have to know you’re on the path to something better.”

The tide finally turns in the empowering, country-pop singalong, “Good Grief” – a bridge to healing built on the rock-solid faith that everything happens for a reason. And with the EP-ending “ONE HOUSE DOWN (from the girl next door),” Merlo finds her hidden inner strength.

A big-picture anthem of self-appreciation, wrapped in the comfort of a ‘90s-country throwback, upbeat country rock collides with soaring vocal energy and “a quintessential Keith Urban guitar solo,” as an everyday girl learns to embrace who she is. One who’s worthy of her dreams in love and in life, even without being Instagram-perfect. Merlo took a bold chance in asking Urban to take part, and says his contribution only confirms her message: the world needs all kinds of people, so be bold and be proud.

“I remember feeling all of these emotions and trying to navigate through them, and now I’m really passionate about writing powerful characters,” she explains. “I want young girls – and maybe my future daughter one day – to hear these songs and be like, ‘She was strong. She made mistakes and she messed up, but she tried her best, and loved herself through it.’”

“At the end of the day, if they feel like they are one house down from the girl next door and not enough, I hope this EP can feel really honest,” she goes on. “I hope it makes people feel heard, seen and understood.”

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