Shaboozey, Carrie Underwood, Faith Hill & More: Acts Who Topped Country Airplay for 4 or More Weeks With Breakthrough Hits

Shaboozey dominates Billboard’s Country Airplay chart (dated Aug. 24) for a fourth week with “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” – gaining entrance to a select group of artists’ breakout hits that have led for at least that long over the chart’s 34-year history.

The song by the Virginia native (born Collins Obinna Chibueze) drew 30.5 million audience impressions at the format Aug. 9-15, according to Luminate. The single, on American Dogwood/EMPIRE, with country radio promotion by Magnolia Music, concurrently crowns the Pop Airplay chart for a second week.

“A Bar Song” is only the ninth country career-establishing No. 1 at the format to reign for four-plus weeks – and the second among the three most recent Country Airplay leaders, after Post Malone’s “I Had Some Help” (featuring Morgan Wallen) ruled for four beginning in June. (Before that, however, no such song had achieved the feat in over 18 years.)

What makes “A Bar Song” so special, and a hit at multiple formats, from country and pop to rhythmic? Travis Daily, who in May became Cumulus Media vp of country, after being named brand and content manager of the chain’s WKDF and WSM-FM Nashville in April, tells Billboard, “I have a kid in college who sends me music almost daily, and he sent me the song one night as I was packing for my move to Nashville. My first reaction was, ‘This is exactly what we need to stand out on WKDF when I get to town.’

“After listening multiple times, I began thinking that this is going to take off before I even get a chance to drive across the country [from Salt Lake City],” Daily says. “Some people think it’s a mystery that it’s doing so well, which kind of baffles me. We have a great song by a very talented artist that our audience seems to love. Passion for this song is almost unheard of.

“Some country programmers don’t like when pop stations play our country hits,” Daily further muses. “I would argue that songs like this give me a chance to convert some audience into becoming fans of the greatest format in the world, which is obviously country.”

Below, browse the songs that have topped Country Airplay for four or more weeks by artists making their first major inroads at the format (counting acts’ first entries on the chart as a lead artist or their initial songs promoted to country radio). They include memorable rookie anthems by acts that went on to become some of country’s biggest names.

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