Meaning of “The Middle” by Zedd (featuring Grey and Maren Morris)

“The Middle” is a song by Russian-born German DJ and music producer Zedd featuring the musical duo Grey and singer Maren Morris. In the song, the singer (Morris) is tired of constantly fighting/quarreling with her significant other and tells him/her “to meet” her “in the middle”. So she’s basically hoping that she and her partner are able to find a middle ground and bring an end to their constant quarreling (which obviously irritates her).

Facts about “The Middle”

• “The Middle” was written by Zedd, Grey (Michael and Kyle Trewartha), Australian songwriter Sarah Aarons and members of the Grammy Award-winning songwriting and production team The Monsters and the Strangerz. American country music singer Maren Morris didn’t receive songwriting credit on the track since she provided only vocals for it.
• The song was produced by all its writers (Zedd, The Monsters and the Strangerz and Grey).
• The track was released on 23rd January, 2018.
• This song marks the first ever collaboration of Morris and Zedd. As for the duo Grey, Zedd had earlier worked with them on the track “Starving” featuring Hailee Steinfeld on vocals.
• Before settling on Morris’ vocals, Zedd and Grey had tried the vocals of over 12 female singers ranging from super famous ones to relatively unknown ones. Some of the famous female singers who recorded their vocals on the track include the following: Bebe Rexha, Demi Lovato, Anne-Marie, Tove Lo, Camila Cabello, Charli XCX, Carly Rae Jepsen, Elle King, Daya, Bishop Briggs and Lauren Jauregui. Morris’ version ended up being chosen over the rest. However, it was later revealed on the BBC by the song’s co-producer and writer Stefan Johnson (a member of The Monsters & Strangerz) that they almost settled for Camila Cabello’s vocals but the singer’s management team didn’t want them using her version since they felt it would drown her smash hit song “Havana”.
• The music video for “The Middle” was directed by noted American music video and film director Dave Meyers. Since the 1990s, Meyers has directed the music videos for many an artist ranging from Britney Spears to Lil Wayne to Aaliyah.
• The song received its premier at the 60th Annual Grammy Award on January 28th, 2018.
• April 28, 2018 was the first ever time that both Zedd and Morris took to the stage to perform this track live. The performance took place at a nightclub in Las Vegas named OMNIA.
• The track was so successful it climbed to the number 5 and 7 positions on the US Billboard Hot 100 and UK Singles Chart respectively.

Does “The Middle” contain any samples?

No sample was used in the creation process of this song.

Have all three artists ever performed this song live?

Yes. Below is a video of Zedd, Grey and Maren Morris performing “The Middle” live at the 2018 Billboard Music Awards in Las Vegas: