Madeline Merlo will perform at Quonset Days on July 22, 2023. (Photo From Instagram/Madeline Merlo)

By Chris Brown

Quonset Days: Madeline Merlo promises ‘a wild Saturday night’

Jul 19, 2023 | 3:01 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – Madeline Merlo is ready for Quonset Days and says you better be too.

“It’s going to be fun. I mean, my set has a lot of energy, I haven’t seen Tim Hicks in years but I’ve toured with him and I know him very well and his show’s a party as well,” says Merlo. “So think it’s going to be, it’s going to be a wild Saturday night for sure so get ready. We’re going to have a lot of fun.”

Quonset Days 2023 is this weekend and welcomes Merlo for the first time to the two-day festival billed as the Greatest Outdoor Party on Dirt.

Started as a tribute to Peter Biemans in 2010, Quonset Days has raised more than $550,000 for the ALS Society of Alberta

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Merlo has watched a family friend battle what she calls a “brutal, brutal disease.” She says being on a stage is her favourite place in the world but shows like this have a special place for her.

“I’m really excited to play this show, and every single penny from this fundraiser goes to ALS and in support of it for people in Alberta that are going through that,” she says.

“So I’m really excited to be on board for something, a good cause, and I always feel like when you play fundraiser-y type of shows the crowd I’m like, ‘y’all are just such great people,’ you know what I mean? Like you guys are here supporting us and live music and it’s all going to such a great cause. So I feel like the energy is going to be amazing.”

Merlo has been around the Canadian country music scene for about 10 years. She won the Rising Star award at the 2015 Canadian Country Music Awards and has had songs like War Paint, Motel Flamingo and Dear Me reached the top 15 in Canada.

She’s begun to break through in the U.S. in the past couple of years.

She won an episode of the NBC songwriting reality show Songland in 2020, penning the upbeat and infectious Champagne Night for Lady A and landing a three-week No. 1 song on U.S. charts. That opened doors in Nashville and helped lead to a record deal with BMG. This year her own single Slide charted at No. 6.

She says songwriters are storytellers and the stories she tells and the characters in her songs often weave through the theme of female empowerment. Merlo says they’re the sort of song she says she needed to hear when she was younger.

“In the song if her boyfriend is being you know terrible or whatever I want her to be strong and I want her to leave,” she says. “When things get hard like we keep our heads up and we keep moving and we stand up for ourselves and we don’t apologize when we have nothing to be sorry about.”

She believes it’s part of her purpose on Earth to be a positive role model in that way.

Merlo says she’ll be releasing new singles in the next few months a new full-length album is in her plans as well. The video for her most recent single Same Car was released on July 12.

Joining Merlo and Hicks on Saturday’s lineup are Stolen Horse and Broadband.

Friday night features headliner Jade Eagleson along with Phoenix and The Chevelles.

Tickets are still available and you can find more information on the Quonset Days website.