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When friends talk music and those friends happen to be two music icons – three-time Grammy winner and CMA Entertainer of the Year Tim McGraw and myriad American Music Award, Academy of Country Music and CMA Award winner of duo Florida Georgia Line Tyler Hubbard – the result is “Undivided.” The upbeat and heartfelt collaboration arrives January 13 at Country radio and all streaming services, along with an official behind-the-scenes music video of the two friends in the studio. The song will be included on the Deluxe version of McGraw’s #1 album Here On Earth, out later this spring on Big Machine Records.
Co-written by Hubbard & Chris Loocke, “Undivided” came out of Hubbard’s time spent soul-searching on his bus while waiting out a positive COVID-19 quarantine. In that space, examining his own ability to judge too quickly, he considered the values he was raised with and looked to his faith for guidance and inspiration. But rather than writing a somber song, the process brought him to a place of hope, and he dug into his roots for a song that sparkled with a beat and positivity.
“Music gives us hope and brings us together in a way nothing else can. This doesn’t mean we don’t have work to do. Quite the opposite,” McGraw explains. “I loved the positivity of this song and that it called me to check myself and to remember that love is bigger. It’s why I knew this song had to be my next single with Tyler as soon as he sent it to me.”
“I knew immediately when I finished it, I had to text it to Tim. He has a way of communicating with the world that is unique in music,” Hubbard said of the feel-good song and collaboration. “For him to want to perform with me was an amazing feeling. The song is about coming together, and that’s exactly what we did.”
Produced by Corey Crowder, Hubbard, McGraw and Byron Gallimore, the banjo and acoustic guitar driven track creates a perfect space for McGraw’s gift as a voice of not just wisdom, but living and learning, to pair with Hubbard’s wide-open rural truths and phased vocals.
I think it’s time to come together
You and I can make a change
Maybe we can make a difference
Make the world a better place
Look around and love somebody
We’ve been hateful long enough
Let the good Lord reunite us
‘Til this country that we love’s
Undivided
