Carly Pearce & Luke Combs Duet The Song They Wrote Together, “I Hope You’re Happy Now,” For The First Time Live

A full-circle moment.

Last night in London at the Royal Albert Hall as part of the Grand Ole Opry’s international debut, Carly Pearce and Luke Combs performed their first live duet of “I Hope You’re Happy Now.”

Of course, Carly recorded it as a duet with Lee Brice, which was released in September of 2019 in as the second single from her self-titled studio album. But you may not know, until now, that Luke was actually a co-write on the song, along with Randy Montana and Jonathan Singleton.

I’ve heard Luke mention here and there that the timing just wasn’t right for him to be featured on it, as he had “Even Though I’m Leavin'” out as a single from his album What You See Is What You Get, and had also put out  “1, 2 Many,” a collaboration with Brooks & Dunn, in September of that year as well. So unfortunately, the left him unable to commit to being able to promote another single and give it the full attention it deserved, but Carly didn’t really need his help as it turns out.

“I Hope You’re Happy Now” reached the top 30 of the Billboard Country Airplay chart in its sixth week, making it the fastest-rising single of Pearce’s career, and it ultimately peaked at #1, becoming her second number one single and Brice’s sixth at the time.

It really is a great song, and it came out while I was in college and it was on the radio constantly, and I remember blasting it constantly, though I had no idea at the time that Combs had helped write it.

Telling the story of a breakup from both sides, it was inspired by Carly’s own past relationship, and it’s extra special for her because it was the last song that her beloved producer Busbee worked on before he passed away, along with the aforementioned subsequent album.

Brice sounds great on “I Hope You’re Happy Now,” but nobody can belt those vocals out like Luke Combs… and I can’t believe it’s taken them this long to get together for a live performance. Both Carly and Luke are incredibly talented vocalists, and hearing and watching them perform it live together, it’s hard not to wish that the original was just like this.

Carly shared footage of the performance on her Instagram, calling it a “full circle” moment and thanking Combs for being there to sing it:

“Many of you don’t know that I wrote ‘I Hope You’re Happy Now” with Luke Combs. tonight in London, we sang it for the FIRST time since we wrote it six years ago. Thank you Luke for this full circle moment!”

Just perfection… check it out:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by c a r l y p e a r c e (@carlypearce)

“I Hope You’re Happy Now”

The post Carly Pearce & Luke Combs Duet The Song They Wrote Together, “I Hope You’re Happy Now,” For The First Time Live first appeared on Whiskey Riff.