Dance Battle

"We wanted to incorporate hip hop, line dancing, a little bit of ballroom, a little bit of jazz and musical theatre. Tyler is almost genre-less, so we really worked with Maya Taylor [the choreographer] to mash different worlds of dance and then when we got Terry in there, we really had him kinda putting his flare and character into it."

 (Alexa Stone, Video-Regisseurin / YouTube, 21. Jänner 2023)

Tyler Hubbard is another artist who follows the current trend and releases his self-titled, first solo album after the disbanding of Florida Georgia Line, on January 27, 2023 with a hefty total of 18 songs. Event though 6 of them have been pre-released as part of a first EP in August of 2022, that still leaves 12 new tracks for the final release of the project.

Although primarily a singer, Tyler Hubbard is also a commercially very successful songwriter. His intuition for catchy melodies and straight to the point choruses did not only form the cornerstone for the success of Florida Georgia Line, but also made him an in-demand songwriter for other artists. So it may not be a surprise, that he is a contributor to all 18 songs on his first solo-album!

After the first single from the project ('5 Foot 9') already went all the way to number 1 on the radio (Billboard Country Airplay) chart, the follow-up single  'Dancin' In The Country' seems to be ready to follow suit. It is very rare that artists are able to make such a seamless and successful transition from one project (FGL) to the next (his solo career) within such a short period of time.

Written together with Ross Copperman, Jon Nite and Keith Urban, the song is a rollicking piece of uptempo entertainment. Or as the artist says about his single: "We’re at this point in culture and our lives where everybody needs an escape from reality for three-and-a-half minutes. That’s kind of the intention behind this song."

And since it does not focus on lyrics but rather the beat for a change, the accompanying video picks up the pieces to tell a little tale instead. It is a humorous story about a Dance Battle in a bar, between a biker gang and a good guy. For the role of the bad guy, former NFL player and later actor, 54-year old Terry Crews was hired. The result is an entertaining clip worth watching, which follows the rhythm lead of the song.

After only 5 weeks, the second single of Tyler Hubbard as a solo artist has already reached number 30 on the radio (Billboard Country Airplay) chart and it is easy to call the infectious earworm another notch in his ever more stretching list of hit songs written.