"Slide" is a song co-written and recorded by Canadian

country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. When referring to a specific polity, the term "country" may refer to a sovereign state, state with limited recognition, constituent country, ...

singer

Madeline Merlo Madeline Rae Merlo (born February 9, 1994) is a Canadian country pop singer-songwriter. She signed to Open Road Recordings in 2013 and released her debut album, ''Free Soul'', three years later. In 2015, Merlo received the "Rising Star" award fro ...

. She wrote the song with Jerry Flowers,

Sam Hunt Sam Lowry Hunt (born December 8, 1984) is an American country music singer and songwriter. Born in Cedartown, Georgia, Hunt played American football, football in his high school and college years and once attempted to pursue a professional sport ...

, and producer Zach Crowell. It is the lead single in Canada off Merlo's debut US extended play ''

Slide Slide or Slides may refer to: Places * Slide, California, former name of Fortuna, California Arts, entertainment, and media Music Albums * ''Slide'' (Lisa Germano album), 1998 * ''Slide'' (George Clanton album), 2018 *''Slide'', by Patrick Glee ...

''.

Background

Merlo's producer Zach Crowell was originally working on "Slide" with American country artist

and songwriter/guitarist Jerry Flowers. They had only developed a

chorus Chorus may refer to: Music * Chorus (song), the part of a song that is repeated several times, usually after each verse * Chorus effect, the perception of similar sounds from multiple sources as a single, richer sound * Chorus form, song in whic ...

melody when they felt the song sounded "better suited for a woman" and wasn't right for Hunt. Merlo remarked that she was at dinner with friends in

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

when she received a call from Crowell asking if she wanted to take over the track. She left to work on it with him and Flowers immediately, and completed the song after several writing sessions. Merlo stated that after months of writing following signing her US record deal with

BBR Music Group BBR Music Group (formerly Broken Bow Records) is an American record label based in Nashville, Tennessee, Nashville. Founded in July 1999 by Benny Brown, the label specializes in country music. The label's executive vice president is Jon Loba. C ...

, "Slide" was the first song that "felt right" and "there was a lot of like excitement and joy around" it.

Critical reception

''Top Country'' named "Slide" their "Pick of the Week" for the week of January 27, 2023, describing it as a "conscious evolution" for Merlo's music. An uncredited review from ''Hot Country 103.5'' stated the song "not only checks all the boxes, but is one of erlo'sbest releases yet", adding that it "has an infectious groove". In reference to Merlo taking over the song from Sam Hunt, Erica Zisman of ''Country Swag'' stated that Merlo "was clearly the right woman for the job".

Commercial performance

"Slide" debuted as the most-added domestic song at all formats of Canadian radio according to

Mediabase Mediabase is a music industry service that monitors radio station airplay in 180 US and Canadian markets. Mediabase publishes music charts and data based on the most played songs on terrestrial and satellite radio, and provides in-depth analytic ...

in January 2023. It then debuted at number 48 on the ''Billboard''

Canada Country The ''Billboard'' charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs and albums in the United States and elsewhere. The results are published in ''Billboard'' magazine. ''Billboard'' biz, the online extension of the ''Billboard'' charts, p ...

chart for the week of January 21, 2023. The song would peak at number six on that chart, after climbing for 15 weeks. It thus became the highest peaking single of Merlo's career to-date.

Live performance

Merlo performed a live acoustic version of "Slide" on

KTLA KTLA (channel 5) is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast flagship station of The CW. It is the largest directly owned property of the network's majority owner, Nexstar Media Group, and is ...

in the United States as part of their "Music Fest Friday" series on September 30, 2022.

Music video

The official music video for "Slide" premiered on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

on October 26, 2022.

Charts

References

{{authority control 2022 songs 2022 singles BBR Music Group singles Madeline Merlo songs Songs written by Madeline Merlo Songs written by Sam Hunt Songs written by Jerry Flowers Songs written by Zach Crowell Song recordings produced by Zach Crowell