Madi Diaz and Kacey Musgraves Team Up on the Devastating Country-Pop Duet 'Don't Do Me Good'

The Nashville singer released the second single off her upcoming album, 'Weird Faith,' on Tuesday

Kacey Musgraves has had a big year of collaborations, and it’s not over yet. 

After joining rising stars Noah Kahan and Zach Bryan on songs, now the "Camera Roll" musician, 35, is teaming up with Nashville artist Madi Diaz. On Tuesday, the singer-songwriter, 37, released “Don’t Do Me Good,” which features Musgraves and is the latest single off her upcoming album Weird Faith (out Feb. 9, 2024 via ANTI-). 

The country-pop song finds the two musicians going back and forth about returning to a flawed relationship that’s difficult to let go of because of how much of a comfort it once was. 

Madi Diaz portrait
Madi Diaz.

Muriel Margaret

On the chorus, they sing, “Every time I try to walk away I stay, you knew I would / I know loving you, it don’t do me good / Every time I wake up crying I’m denying what I should / I know loving you, it don’t do me good.”

As they join each other on the song — especially during its climactic final moments — their voices beautifully intertwine and give what could be a solely devastating track a hint of an uplifting tone. 

The new release arrived along with a music video directed by Elizabeth Olmstead and starring Diaz as she wrestles with her emotions on a late-night drive. 

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The History of a Feeling artist opened up about the song and working with the “Slow Burn” singer in a post on Instagram featuring a sweet selfie of the two working together in the studio. 

In the caption, she revealed the meaning behind the lyrics. “‘Don’t Do Me Good’ is about that person that we keep coming back to, over and over again,” Diaz wrote. “It's about waking up every day and continuing to make the choice to love a person unconditionally without boundaries while it’s simultaneously getting harder and harder to ignore that nothing is getting better. It’s stubborn, it’s defiant, it's hopeful, and it's aggressively optimistic.”

Diaz then shared why it was important to her to collaborate with someone on “Don’t Do Me Good’ specifically. She wrote, “I wanted this song to feel like calling your friend in that moment of needing to commiserate with someone…to talk through an experience you’re having and say it out loud to make sure it’s real. To chronicle your experience with someone in real time and to have that person say ‘yeah man, I’ve so been there’ and share the experience with you.”

“This song would have been so awfully lonely without that spirit in there and I’m just beyond grateful to hear Kacey’s voice on this with mine,” she added. “We’ve talked a lot of life up and down and this song feels like an extension of that connection and I’m proud of that:).”

The post concluded with a sweet final note: “(call your friends!!) thank u @spaceykacey 🥲 x.”

Madi Diaz Weird Faith Album Cover
Cover of Madi Diaz's 'Weird Faith'.

Courtesy of ANTI-

The single arrives several weeks after Diaz — who joined Harry Styles’ band as a guitarist and backup vocalist during the European leg of his Love on Tour — announced her new album Weird Faith. When the “Crying in Public” singer shared her latest project was due out Feb. 9, she dropped its lead single, “Same Risk.” 

In a statement on Instagram, she described Weird Faith as being about “the unwilling flailing and ultimate trust fall into love.”

“Don’t Do Me Good” marks Musgraves’ third release and collaboration of the year. She last collaborated with Grammy-nominated folk artist Kahan, 26, on turning his fan-favorite 2022 song "She Calls Me Back" into a duet, and also recently joined country star Bryan, 27, on his EP track "I Remember Everything."

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