"Settling Down" is a song co-written and recorded by American

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

artist

Miranda Lambert Miranda Leigh Lambert (born November 10, 1983) is an American country singer and guitarist. Born in Longview, Texas, she started out in early 2001 when she released her self-titled debut album independently. In 2003, she finished in third place o ...

. It was released on September 21, 2020, as the third single from Lambert's seventh studio album ''

Wildcard Wild card most commonly refers to: * Wild card (cards), a playing card that substitutes for any other card in card games * Wild card (sports), a tournament or playoff place awarded to an individual or team that has not qualified through normal pla ...

''. Lambert performed the song live at the 54th Annual Country Music Association Awards.

Composition

Lambert wrote the song with Luke Dick and

Natalie Hemby Natalie Nicole Hemby Wrucke (born March 24, 1977) is an American country music songwriter and singer. She has written songs for Lee Ann Womack, Eli Young Band, Toby Keith, Miranda Lambert, Sunny Sweeney, Little Big Town, Jon Pardi, Kacey Musgrav ...

, the same team that wrote her previous single, "

Bluebird The bluebirds are a North American group of medium-sized, mostly insectivorous or omnivorous birds in the order of Passerines in the genus ''Sialia'' of the thrush family (Turdidae). Bluebirds are one of the few thrush genera in the Americas. ...

", and it was produced by

Jay Joyce John Joseph "Jay" Joyce is an American record producer, songwriter and session musician. In the 1990s, Joyce, with Chris Feinstein and Brad Pemberton, recorded and toured as Iodine and began working as a record producer, working with artists suc ...

. Lambert developed the song's hook while having an earlier conversation with her bus driver about her relationship with Brendan McLoughlin ("am I settling up or settling down?") and brought that to the writing session, and together they wrote a song "full of paradoxes" that highlighted the whirlwind life of an artist touring the country while also desiring the homestead lifestyle following Lambert's fresh marriage to McLoughlin. Lambert also noted that McLoughlin was one of the song's most ardent supporters and lobbied for its release as a single: "And you know, he was out there with us on the road and he was hearing, when I was hanging with radio, that people were responding to it."

Music video

The music video for "Settling Down" was directed by

Trey Fanjoy Trey Fanjoy is an American music video director. Fanjoy has directed over 150 major label music videos. Her videos have appeared on CMT, VH1, GAC, The Nashville Network, CMT Canada, and MTV. She is the first woman to win the Country Music Asso ...

and premiered on October 21, 2020. It was shot on location at Lambert's farm outside

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the List of muni ...

and features her husband, Brendan McLoughlin, marking the first time Lambert has had a love interest in one of her music videos: "I'm like, 'You're cute, you're here, and you're free.' It was fun; he did such a great job... and our little dog is in it, and our ponies. It's at my magical-happy place an hour away from Nashville."

Chart performance

"Settling Down" debuted at number 45 on the ''Billboard''

Country Airplay Country Airplay is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States since January 20, 1990. This chart lists the 60 most-listened-to records played on 150 mainstream country radio stations across the country as monitored ...

chart dated October 3, 2020, and at number 49 on the ''Billboard''

Hot Country Songs Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data from Nielsen BDS along with digital sal ...

chart dated October 17, 2020.

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

{{Miranda Lambert singles 2019 songs 2020 singles Miranda Lambert songs RCA Records Nashville singles Songs written by Miranda Lambert Songs written by Luke Dick Songs written by Natalie Hemby Song recordings produced by Jay Joyce