Tigirlily Gold’s whirlwind year includes career bucket list items like making their Grand Ole Opry debut, garnering their first top 40 single at country radio with the anthemic single “Shoot Tequila,” and releasing their debut EP Blonde. The country duo made up of sisters Kendra and Krista Slaubaugh, close out 2023 with the feel-good holiday original “Falalala Falling.”
Videos by American Songwriter
In their last interview of 2023, Kendra and Krista discuss writing “Falalala Falling” in the spring. The women were trying their best to create a song that sounded like Tigirlily Gold but with Christmas content, they explained. The pair teamed with frequent collaborators Alex Kline and Scott Stepakoff for the romantic holiday number.
[RELATED: Tigirlily Gold Shares Christmas Original “Falalala Falling”]
“Krista and I did go into the room with the plan of writing a Christmas song that day,” Kendra tells American Songwriter. “We didn’t know if we were going to get ‘the one’ so to say, but we wanted to at least give it a go and try to write a holiday single for us. We’re from North Dakota originally, so we wanted to incorporate the snow somehow in the song and then it ended up being a love song about being snowed in on Christmas Eve with the one you love. At the end of the day, one of the best things that could happen is being snowed in on Christmas Eve.”
The song embodies the holiday spirit with clever lyrics like getting mistletoe tipsy and You look at me like I’m hot chocolate that you wanna sip slow. As Kendra explains, mistletoe tipsy means “being a little love drunk.” Krista, meanwhile, describes “Falalala Falling” as a “flirty” song as portrayed in the lyrics I can taste a hint of some peppermint on your candy cane lips.
“We wanted it to be a little sexy, a little flirty, but also super playful,” Kendra says. “When I’m singing the song, or when I’m listening to it, I can picture the whole story happening. I can see an old couple kissing on each other, up and down the halls loving on each other. But I can also see it being young love. It’s all these different kinds of love. I think that’s where the song can take on different meanings for whoever’s listening to it.”
Krista shares that they channeled some winter energy when recording the song in the studio in July. The women brought in Santa hats and wore festive attire when they went in to record the song so it felt more like Christmas.
“Over the holidays, over Christmas and the holiday season in general, I feel like falling in love and being in love is a little more magical than any other time of year,” Kendra, who thought of her husband while writing and recording the song, says. “So we really wanted to capture that in this song as well.”
Adds Krista: “And I’m out here looking for my next mistletoe victim.”
The North Dakota natives will have a Nashville Christmas this year, as their parents also relocated to Tennessee. Some of their favorite Christmas traditions include candlelit Christmas Eve service and opening their gifts in matching pajamas. Kendra adds that Krista “makes the best sugar cookies of all time.”
As Tigirlily Gold looks back on their successful year, the women are grateful for all their career achievements in 2023.
“For me, the most special moment for sure was stepping into the circle together and making our Opry debut,” Kendra says. “We’ve been so grateful to have played that eight times now this year. So just very, very grateful for that experience and that they keep having us back and it really is a family there.”
Kendra says other highlights include singing their first NFL national anthem at Lambeau Field, playing the Today Show and meeting Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager, and having their first top 40 song at country radio.
“That was a huge dream come true,” she adds. “All we listened to growing up was country radio and all we ever dreamed of was writing songs and performing, so having a song on radio go top 40 this year was just pretty incredible.”
While Krista echos Kendra’s highlight of making their Opry debut, she said she’s most grateful for being there for each other throughout “the highs and the lows” of their whirlwind year.
“This year, it has given us whiplash in the best way possible,” Krista says. “A lot of our dreams have come true, but there’s also been months where we are running like chickens with their heads cut off. It’s good to have a person who knows you really well to rely on. There’s mornings where we woke up and didn’t feel like ourselves, but it was important to keep working and keep our head down keep grinding because it was paying off.”
Photo credit: Jared Olson / Courtesy Monument Records
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