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“My jaw is on the FLOOR.”
Carly Pearce stunned her social media followers when she shared a teaser with fellow country star Riley Green on Thursday morning (February 26).
Pearce, 35, posted a romantic, 7-second clip showing herself and Green, 37, holding glasses of wine and sitting closely with one another. She simply captioned the clip, which is set to a snippet of an unreleased song, “baby isn’t doing this the definition of insane.”
Pearce didn’t reveal any other details — including a collaboration title or a release date — as of publication time; however, she quickly caught the attention of commenters (and other artists) on TikTok and Instagram. The Band Perry’s Kimberly Perry hailed Pearce and “ICON.” Singer-songwriter Harper Grace said “my jaw just hit the floor.” Others wrote, “we ain’t ready,” “didn’t expect this one,” “I didn’t see this on my bingo card,” “stop playing and release the album already,” and more.
Pearce has been setting the stage for her highly-anticipated fifth studio record, following 2024’s hummingbird. In November, she released “Dream Come True,” a vulnerable ballad “about the sacrifices we make when chasing our dreams.” Pearce followed that single with “Church Girl” last month, and said she hopes “this song meets you wherever you are and gives you a sense of love and acceptance, and not judgement.” The Grammy-winning artist spoke about her latest singles and hinted at her next chapter when she caught up with Senior Music Editor Joseph Hudak on Rolling Stone’s Nashville Now podcast. On the episode that premiered on Wednesday (February 25), Pearce said her album is “done.”
Pearce said her upcoming album, produced by Ben West, brought her back to her longtime musical inspirations. She described “Appalachian, classic country, Loretta Lynn meets The Judds meets Alison Krauss,” and said it feels like she’s “evolving” from her 29 era, music that “was me at my core.” On Wednesday, Pearce also teased an announcement at 9:30 a.m. the next morning. That post arrived shortly after she cleared her entire Instagram account and replaced it with one photo, stirring anticipation for what's next.
Green is part of the star-studded lineup of the 2026 iHeartCountry Festival, along with Luke Bryan, Kane Brown, Parker McCollum, Shaboozey, Dylan Scott, Russell Dickerson, Gretchen Wilson, Chase Matthew and Lauren Alaina. iHeartRadio's Bobby Bones is returning as the event’s host. The show will take place on May 2 at Moody Center in Austin, Texas. Tickets to the show are available as of January 23. Fans across the country will be able to catch all the action as the 2026 iHeartCountry Festival will be broadcast live across iHeartCountry stations nationwide and the free iHeartRadio app on Saturday, May 2nd at 8pm ET/5pm PT (7pm CT).