Watch Maddie and Tae’s Gravity-Defying ‘Fly’ Video

Maddie and Tae’s newly-released video for “Fly” could easily be taken as the duo’s response to hurdles they’ve had to jump to make country music history. The Oklahoma and Texas-born singers were 17 years old when they were granted emancipation from their parents in order to pursue music in Tennessee.

“We were both so scared when we came to Nashville to chase this dream,” says Maddie Marlow, who co-wrote “Fly” with Tae Dye and Tiffany Vartanyan. “How many days did I look out the window and want to run home because the world was so big and things were going wrong? But I also knew if I ran away, my dream would never happen. It was being brave when I didn’t even know why or how that somehow brought us to here, which is exactly why we wrote the song.”

The new tune follows their chart-topping “Girl in a Country Song,” which made Maddie and Tae only the third female duo in 70 years to have a Number One debut single. They were also the first female country act to top the radio charts in almost two years.

While their new single doesn’t have the sass of “Girl,” it certainly has the drive. “Fly” promotes persistence in the face of adversity, and plays out that virtue through a montage of characters in its video — a despairing mother, an earnest teacher, a tiny baby and a young girl, as the story moves from darkness to light.

“We hope for anyone else trying to make a dream come true, they can find the faith to keep going in ‘Fly’ when they’re about to give up,” says Marlow.

Maddie and Tae grew up on Nineties’ Dixie Chicks-fueled country, but they give nods to female artists of decades past in the “Fly” video, donning contemporary version of gowns worn by the likes of Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn and June Carter Cash long before they were born. Even though some new-to-country fans might not notice the nod to traditional country, it will surely grab the attention of those who mourn the swapping of rhinestones for Daisy Dukes.

An even bigger attention-grabber in the “Fly” video is the set on which they wear those dresses. The two musicians are suspended in the middle of a wall full of antique chairs. Maddie and Tae credit video director Brian Lazarro for the idea and report that this isn’t camera magic — they truly were wall décor for part of the shoot.

Watch Maddie and Tae’s “Fly” video above.