Kacey Musgraves released her sixth studio album Middle of Nowhere a little over a week ago, which features the highly anticipated duet with Miranda Lambert called “Horses and Divorces,” and it marks not only a huge moment in the country genre from a purely musical standpoint, but a turn around in their personal relationship, too.
The two had a years-long feud that stemmed from Miranda’s song “Mama’s Broken Heart,” which was released as the fourth single from Lambert’s 2011 Four the Record album in 2013, and was written by Brandy Clark, Shane McAnally and of course, Kacey Musgraves. The song peaked at #2 on the U.S. Billboard Country Airplay chart and has since been certified 3× Platinum by the RIAA, which means it has moved over 1,960,000 units.
The simple version of the story goes that Miranda really wanted the song, and Kacey was reluctant to give it up, clearly knowing that it was a hit, and it was apparently pitched to Miranda without Kacey’s knowledge. Kacey wanted to use it as the lead single to her debut album, but she ended up giving it to Miranda (though she does sing background vocals on it), mostly for the sake of her co-writers because Miranda was the much bigger artist at the time. But being forced to give up her song created some resentment, understandably, that lasted for years.
Their beef also led to an iconic internet moment, which resulted from Miranda’s 2013 speech at the CMA Awards, when she won Female Vocalist of the Year, a category Kacey was also nominated in. That same year, Kacey won the CMA Awards for New Artist of the Year, and they were both also nominated for Single of the Year and Song of the Year with the aforementioned “Mama’s Broken Heart.”
After years of keeping their distance, Kacey decided it was time to bury the hatchet, so to speak, and in speaking with NPR Music’s Jewly Hight, Kacey explained what went down back then and how the two of them ended up working together for this album.
They lost touch at that point and definitely “wouldn’t consider each other friends,” but when Kacey saw a photo of Miranda riding one of her horses on Instagram one day, it sparked an idea… because they have two things in common: “horses and divorces,” and a song was born. Kacey says she randomly reached out and asked Miranda if she wanted to write it with herself and Shane McAnally, and Miranda was eager to do it. She said it was a “very full circle” moment, adding that they aired out any past laundry, had some laughs, and wrote the song in a matter of hours.
The girls have known each other since 2000, being raised in towns not too far from each other and being into music from a young age, and their issues were very much real, as Kacey described their beef as “grade A, grass-fed,” so their making up and writing this song came from a very real place, and they completely buried the hatchet with their first live performance at Kacey’s recent Gruene Hall show, where she brought out Miranda as a surprise guest.
And with the early success of the song, Kacey and Miranda are the first two ladies to debut on the Billboard Hot 100 with an all-female country duet following the first full week of tracking since 2014, when Miranda and Carrie Underwood accomplished the same with their hit “Somethin’ Bad,” which debuted at #39.
“Horses and Divorces” debuted at #84 on the Hot 100 following release week:
.@KaceyMusgraves‘ “Horses And Divorces,” featuring @mirandalambert, debuts at No. 84 on this week’s #Hot100.
— billboard charts (@billboardcharts) May 12, 2026
There have been other female country duets make an appearance on the Hot 100 in between that time, though, as Miranda and Elle King reached #37 on the chart with “Drunk (And I Don’t Wanna Go Home)” in 2022. Carly Pearce and Ashley McBryde peaked at #63 on the Hot 100 in 2022 as well with “Never Wanted to Be That Girl.” Maddie & Tae’s “Girl in a Country Song” peaked at #54 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2014 similar to Carrie and Miranda, but it did not debut there after the first week of release like theirs did.
All of that basically means that it took more time and support for those songs to get to the Hot 100 whereas “Horses and Divorces” is having an immediate impact on the all-genre chart, which simply translates to the fact that fans are loving it and listening to it. Willie Nelson also achieved a cool new chart feat thanks to his duet on Kacey’s album, another one of my favorites, “Uncertain, TX.”
It’s so incredible to see Kacey and Miranda not only working together, because I truly never thought it would happen, and the fact that they’re having so much success with it is just the cherry on top. It’s everything I could have hoped for, and you can probably guess that “Horses and Divorces” has been on repeat in my car for the last week or so…
@choosingwasnot Kacey Musgraves brings out Miranda Lambert (who was slated to headline Kid Rock’s MAGA concert, btw) at the final night of her Gruene Hall residency in New Braunfels, TX #kaceymusgraves #middleofnowhere ♬ original sound – mandy
Turn it up:
“Horses and Divorces”
“Uncertain, TX”
