Singer Oliver Anthony’s viral hit “Rich Men North of Richmond” on Monday debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart, making him the first artist ever to launch atop the list with no prior chart history in any form.
Speaking exclusively to Billboard, the Virginia native chalked up the song’s meteoric rise to the mood in America today.
“The hopelessness and frustration of our times resonate in the response to this song. The song itself is not anything special, but the people who have supported it are incredible and deserve to be heard,” Mr. Anthony told the music outlet.
Track Hits Home With Working Class
“Rich Men North of Richmond” addresses the wealthy elites in Washington D.C., the backroom dealmakers content to breeze through life while working-class families work and struggle just to survive in this era of inflation and upper-class extravagance.The song has not only resonated as a working-class anthem with millions but has been embraced by conservative voices including political commentators Matt Walsh and Dan Bongino and singer-songwriter John Rich, with Mr. Rich stepping up to offer his own assistance with Mr. Anthony’s music career.
While the track’s video had gone viral by mid August, having racked up nearly 10 million views in just five days on YouTube, Mr. Anthony also had three of the top songs on the iTunes Charts with “Rich Men North of Richmond” at number one, “Ain’t Gotta Dollar” at number two, followed by “I’ve Got to Get Sober.” The song first drew buzz on TikTok, where Mr. Anthony has 1.5 million followers, prior to its Aug. 11 posting on the radiowv YouTube account, which features unsigned Americana and country acts in the Virginia/West Virginia region.
He’s just the sixth artist ever to debut a first solo Hot 100 entry at No. 1, following Zayn, Baauer, Carrie Underwood, Fantasia, and Clay Aiken.
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The Hot 100 blends all-genre U.S. streaming (official audio and official video), radio airplay, and sales data, the lattermost metric reflecting purchases of physical singles and digital tracks from full-service digital music retailers; digital singles sales from direct-to-consumer (D2C) sites are excluded from chart calculations. All charts (dated Aug. 26) updated on Billboard.com on Tuesday, Aug. 22.
Song Ranks Also Takes Hot 100 No. 1 in Solo-Written and Solo-Sung Categories
“Rich Men North of Richmond” is the first solo-written Hot 100 No. 1 since Glass Animals’ “Heat Waves,” which was written by the band’s frontman Dave Bayley and dominated for five weeks back in March-April of 2022.It’s the first Hot 100 leader written entirely and sung by a soloist since Ed Sheeran’s song “Perfect” held its last of six weeks at No. 1 in January 2018.
The song simultaneously opens atop Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart, which uses the same methodology as the Hot 100, and marks the 23rd song to have topped both the Hot 100 and Hot Country Songs.
Mr. Anthony’s song has drawn both praise from the right and opposition from the left while the support for Mr. Anthony’s music has been criticized by some media outlets like Rolling Stone.
The outlet recently posted a story titled, “Right-Wing Influencers Just Found Their Favorite New Country Song” with a sub-headline, “In ‘Rich Men North of Richmond,’ a singing farmer in Virginia blasts high taxes and obese people on welfare, and even appears to allude to Jeffrey Epstein.”
The article begins by saying, “Right-wing influencers are losing their minds over a new country song that just appeared on streaming services today,” and goes on to describe “Rich Men North of Richmond” as a “passionate screed against the state of the country sung by Oliver Anthony, who identifies as a farmer living off the grid with his three dogs in Farmville, Virginia.”
Anthony Answers Fans’ Demands
“I sit pretty dead center down the aisle on politics and always have,” said Mr. Anthony in a video posted Aug. 7.In an Aug. 17 Facebook post, he wrote, “I am sad to see the world in the state it’s in, with everyone fighting with each other.”
He recently performed at a free concert in Barco, North Carolina, drawing a crowd of thousands and signing autographs for hours afterwards and has since told fans he is working on setting dates for future show performances.
“We are working on a full [lineup] of shows with bigger accommodations in the near future,” he wrote on Facebook. “Everyone in the ‘industry’ is rushing me into signing something, but we just want to take things slow right now. I appreciate your patience.”
