Before releasing “You Look Like You Love Me,” Ella Langley and Riley Green had a feeling the song would stir the pot.

Regardless, their efforts paid off at the 2024 CMA Awards on Wednesday, Nov. 20, when Langley, 25, and Green, 36, won for musical event of the year. Speaking to reporters after their win, the duo opened up about the reaction to the viral song.

Langley, 25, has now heard several fan stories about the song. “When we wrote the song, we were laughing because we thought this might cause some marriages, maybe some divorces, and definitely some children. I like it,” she explained.

Regarding the song’s rapid success, Green said it happened “as soon as it came out.”

“I think one of the first times we played it, you opened your phone the next day and you couldn’t get rid of it,” he said. “It all makes sense. The song is just a huge hit and people really latched onto it from the first time it came out.”

Speaking to PEOPLE after their win, the duo talked about how “wild” it was that they beat “some really good people.”

“This song came about so organically,” Langley said. “Riley joining the song and writing his verse is the same. Everything happened the way it was supposed to and I’m just really grateful to be here tonight.”

In a separate interview before the show, Langley said she and Green had known each other for “a long, long time.” When he asked her to go on tour with him, she had just cut “You Look Like You Love Me.”

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“I was like, ‘Dang, imagine if Riley wrote a second verse of this song. Just him talking. It’s something different and stuff that we both grew up with. It was just such a cool experience to have everything to experience this with someone.”

In September, Langley said Taste of the country that Green was “probably the first famous person I ever met.”

She continued, “He played the same bars I went to, and I played the same bars he did. It’s cool to see people from Alabama winning!”

“You Look Like You Love Me” sparked rumors of a romance between the pair, but Langley assured they are just “good friends.”