Songfacts®:

• "Kiss The Sky" was written for the 2024 animated movie The Wild Robot and is used in a climactic scene where the robot helps teach a young goose how to fly (attach a string like it's a kite and run to get it off the ground). The song is about overcoming your fears, with the flight metaphor baked in to align with the use in the movie.
• Maren Morris wrote the song with a team of writers specifically for the film. Here's the rundown:
  
  Ali Tamposi
  She's a good writer to call when you need an inspirational anthem. Her other co-writes include "What Doesn't Kill You (Stronger)" by Kelly Clarkson and "Angels Like You" by Miley Cyrus.
  
  Michael Pollack
  He's co-written songs for Maroon 5, Celine Dion, Justin Bieber and many other big names. He had a hand in "Flowers" by Miley Cyrus.
  
  Delacey
  Born Brittany Marie Amaradio, she's known for co-writing Halsey's hit "Without Me" and has released her own albums as a solo artist.
  
  Jordan and Stefan Johnson
  These guys also produced the track. They work under the name The Monsters & Strangerz, and are top guns in the industry. Their handiwork is on Maren Morris' big hit with Zedd, "The Middle."
• Classic rock fans will think of Jimi Hendrix when they see the song's title. In one of his most famous songs, "Purple Haze," he sings, "Excuse me while I kiss the sky."
• Morris drew inspiration from her young son, Hayes, when she worked on this song. Animated movies take a long time to make, so Morris started working on the song in 2022 when Hayes was just 2 years old. When she saw the scene for the song, she knew it was a good fit.
  
  "It was just immediately making me think about my son, 16 years down the line, going off to college, and me and his dad dropping him off and just the emotional weight of seeing the future in that way," she explained to The Ankler. "So it got me, and I just knew I wanted to be a part of the team just from that one scene."
• Morris rented out a theater in Nashville to watch The Wild Robot with friends and family when it came out. Her son was 4 years old by this point, and Morris was thrilled to see that he loved the film.
• Maren Morris is rooted in country music, making a mark in that genre with songs like "My Church" and "The Bones." She went in a more pop direction in the 2020s, frustrated by the culture of country music, which she feels can be rigid and intolerant (Morris has described herself as bisexual and is a staunch supporter of LGBT+ rights). Around the time this song was released, she also put out an EP called Intermission that's very pop.
• Morris also sings the song "Even When I'm Not," which is used in the closing credits of The Wild Robot. She wrote that song with the same team that wrote "Kiss The Sky." Those are the only two songs with lyrics on the soundtrack.
• The Wild Robot is based on a 2016 novel of that name by Peter Brown. The movie, a DreamWorks production, did very well at the box office, earning well over $300 million on a budget of $78 million.
  
  The film did well with critics and the music earned some high-profile accolades. "Kiss The Sky" earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Original Song but lost to "El Mal" from the film Emilia Pérez, written by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.