State Champ Radio Country
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On Tuesday evening (Feb. 7), singer, songwriter and trailblazer Frankie Staton celebrated a career highlight more than four decades in the making: her Grand Ole Opry debut performance.
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“I never thought this moment would happen, but it did,” Staton told Billboard prior to her debut. Since moving to Nashville from her native North Carolina in 1981, Staton has been a champion for Black country artists and songwriters, in addition to forging her own career, and was instrumental in launching the Black Country Music Association alongside Cleve Francis in the 1990s.
As she has done for decades, Staton used her Opry moment to once again uplift those around her, welcoming longtime friends and artists Valierie Ellis Hawkins and Jonell Mosser, as their voices intertwined in superb harmonies during Staton’s brief set.
“To God be the glory,” Staton told the audience in the Opry House Tuesday evening, standing in the spotlight of country music’s most venerable stage.
As part of her Opry debut, singer-songwriter Staton performed her own music: “Your Dream” and “Forever Loretta,” the latter a tribute to the late Country Music Hall of Famer Loretta Lynn. For that song, she asked the audience to hold their cell phone lights high in the air. “We are going to light up the Opry House up for Loretta,” she told the audience, as the Opry House was quickly lit aglow.
Prior to her Opry debut, Staton told Billboard, “Loretta was one of my icons. I’m excited about singing my own music and about singing a song that is very personal to me about somebody that I cared a lot about.” Staton also recalled meeting Lynn — a story she later also shared with the Opry audience.
“I was waiting tables at the Cooker by Centennial Park,” Staton told Billboard. “Crystal Gayle and Loretta Lynn came in the day that they buried Owen Bradley, who had produced Patsy Cline and Loretta. I went up to her and said, ‘Loretta, I’ve thought about you a lot…I thought if I could have anything in the world for you, I’d have your daddy know what happened to you.’ In that instant, she started crying, and then Crystal started crying. I thought, ‘Oh no, I made Loretta cry!’ Then she said, ‘Look, honey, it’s a good cry, because we love our Daddy.’”
It was Lynn’s own hardscrabble story and unflinchingly honest music that inspired Staton to chase her music dreams to Nashville in 1981, after watching the movie Coal Miner’s Daughter.
Speaking to Billboard, she recalled one of her earliest performances in Nashville: As Staton was on her way to a jam session in the Printer’s Alley area of Nashville, a police officer stopped her and questioned where she was headed. He then followed her to the venue, where Staton was one of the earliest singers to sign up to perform. Then, while other performers who signed up after she did were called onstage to sing, Staton had to wait until nearly 2:30 a.m. for her turn to perform.
“I knew when they wouldn’t let me up there, this would be a defining moment of my life,” Staton recalled. “You don’t run from this. There are times in your life where you have to stay and fight for what you want. Things that have come normally to other people, Black people have had to bend over backwards to get the opportunity. I knew if I left, they would never know the potential I had. I said, ‘I don’t care if I have to stay here all night long, I’m not leaving.’”
Her determination led to her being called back to perform the next evening, which resulted in an audition at another nearby restaurant and her first paying gig in Nashville. In 1997, after reading a newspaper story that included a record executive claiming they could not find Black country music talent, Staton was again determined to challenge the inequity she was seeing.
“I read the story over and over and thought, ‘That’s not true. There are some real talented Black country singers here.’”
In February 1997, she launched the first country music showcases for Black artists at Nashville’s Bluebird Café, the venue famous for helping to accelerate the careers of artists including Garth Brooks. “I was trying to open a door for more diversity in country music and bring to this American art form a whole new page of light that they know nothing about,” Staton told Billboard.
The group quickly swelled to over 60 artists, but Staton recalls that among those who attended that first showcase was Hawkins, who last night stood beside Staton on the Opry stage. “She had an incredible country voice and story,” Staton recalled of first meeting Hawkins. “She loved Don Williams and Vern Gosdin. She sang at Loretta Lynn’s ranch all the time, but I couldn’t get anyone on Music Row to listen.”
Ellis Hawkins had a potential artist development deal with a major label, but it soon fizzled out. “It made me sick to see that level of real country talent just be dissed and ignored,” Staton stated. “It made me sick because I knew she was the real deal. We dreamed together and we’ve been friends ever since.”
Staton forged ahead, writing songs, performing music and becoming a staple in Nashville’s live music scene. During her career, she has spent a decade as a performer on Ralph Emery’s morning television show and made appearances on Nashville Now. She’s spent years as a regular pianist and performer at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel and Convention Center. Behind the scenes, she has also spent considerable time as a champion, supporter and mentor for scores of Black artists, songwriters and other creatives within Nashville’s music community.
Her work in launching the Black Country Music Association laid the groundwork for organizations and individuals spearheading current diversity and inclusion efforts, as well as platforms highlighting Black country musicians, including the Black Opry, the Black Opry Revue, the Rosedale Collective, Rissi Palmer’s Color Me Country Radio program on Apple Music and Color Me Country artist grant fund, as well as the Country Music Association’s diversity and inclusion fellowship.
Meanwhile, a whole new generation is learning of Staton’s career journey, through Amazon Music’s documentary, For Love & Country (“Your Dream” is featured in the documentary’s playlist). Staton’s work alongside Francis with the Black Country Music Association is also featured as part of the Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum’s current exhibit, American Currents: The State of Music – Unbroken Circle, which will open March 8 and run through February 2024.
“My mantra has always been to be the change I wanted to see,” Staton said.
People who are extremely guarded about their private lives — particularly their love lives — would do well not to get involved with an ace songwriter. Carly Simon’s “You’re So Vain” left music fans speculating for decades about the narcissist at the core of her venomous takedown, and Taylor Swift rather famously built a big part of her catalog on a string of disappointing relationships, dropping clues about her subjects’ identities but declining to name them.
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Alana Springsteen delved into her own real-life bouts with heartbreak in her first full-length album, 2021’s independently released History of Breaking Up (Part One), and again in 2022’s Part Two. Now signed to the New York division of Columbia, her first release for the label — “You Don’t Deserve a Country Song,” issued last month — reflects her efforts to purge the emotional residue after the split that informed those prior projects.
“Coming off History of Breaking Up (Part One) and (Part Two), it made a lot of sense to start the year off with this song,” Springsteen reflects. “If they found my music through that period, this is going to feel really familiar to them.”
The room was crowded when “Deserve” came into the world in fall 2021. Springsteen already knew three of her four male co-writers — Michael Whitworth (“Break It In”), Geoff Warburton (“Best Thing Since Backroads”) and Will Weatherly (“Thinking ’Bout You,” “Lose It”) — and was introduced to Mitchell Tenpenny, who subsequently made her an opening act during a 2022 tour. Her willingness to put her emotions on the line in that room impressed him.
“You can tell that she was vulnerable about it,” Tenpenny says. “She’s opening up in a room full of dudes to tell us how she feels, and I respect the s–t out of that. She’s a badass.”
Springsteen possessed the musical catalyst for the day’s work at that writing session. She introduced a stuttered, descending acoustic guitar line played at an aggressive pace in an open tuning, and it sifted into a sort of cluttered conversation. In the middle of it, Tenpenny offered a title that he had logged in his phone, “You Don’t Deserve a Song.” It resonated with Springsteen’s recent breakup.
“When things were good between us, we would actually have conversations and talk about me being a songwriter, and maybe writing something about our relationship or him getting to hear his name on the radio,” she recalls.
They tweaked Tenpenny’s title to accommodate the genre — “You Don’t Deserve a Country Song” — and set out to write a tune that refuses to acknowledge a relationship, even if writing it undercut the actual message.
“I thought it was cool to say you don’t deserve it while you’re giving them a country song,” Tenpenny says. “I’m writing it about you, but I just love the irony in saying you’re not going to do it. You’re doing it because that’s what we [as songwriters] do.”
They wrote the chorus first, with the singer vowing not to do the standard things that jilted lovers do in broken-hearted country songs: no drinking alone at the bar, no stalking the ex’s house. All the writers knew her emotional situation, regardless of whether they knew her ex.
“I actually have no idea who this person is in Alana’s life, but I have that person in my life,” says Weatherly. “That’s what makes the entire thing more universal. Everyone knows that person in their life.”But with each of those five creatives contributing their viewpoints, “You Don’t Deserve a Country Song” has a certain orderliness to it. Every stanza serves a different purpose, structured in a way that makes chronological sense to the listener, even though the room itself was a bit disorderly.
“It is chaos when everybody’s tossing out ideas, but everyone in their own mind has an idea of what they think it should be,” Whitworth notes. “Five people’s ideas amalgamate into the final product, but every one of us could have written our own version of that song.”
They first explored the details of writing a song — putting pen to paper, rhyming and forming chords — while vowing not to waste the effort on the ex. Verse two invoked other classic country songs that mined the same subject: “What Hurts the Most,” “You’ll Think of Me” and “Neon Moon,” the latter written by Ronnie Dunn for Tree Publishing (now a part of Sony Music Publishing) when Tenpenny’s grandmother, Donna Hilley, was one of the company’s leading executives. The titles appear in the story with surprising subtlety.
“Maybe it doesn’t catch you on the first listen, but it still services the song and the hook,” says Whitworth. “There’s a backstory no one would ever know listening to the song, but we kind of put in songs that got us into country music.”
Weatherly oversaw the demo, using layers of guitars over a pulsing, synthetic bass to create a near-constant sense of forward motion. He built the sound to a crescendo at the end of the bridge, where Springsteen proclaims, “You don’t get to hear your name on the radio.” He followed it with a down chorus, designed for a short respite before raising the intensity once again at the close.
“As a listener, I don’t want a kick drum hammering my ear the entire time,” Weatherly explains. “So you either do a down bridge and an up chorus, or you do an up bridge and a down chorus. You give the listener a moment to breathe.”
Weatherly’s demo was so well-executed that producer Chris LaCorte (Sam Hunt, Cole Swindell) gave him co-producer credit after using the bass and some of the percussion parts from that demo for the master recording. They were only cutting one song at the time (as opposed to three or four songs in a session), so to keep costs down, they built it with the musicians recording individually in their home studios. The cast included drummer Aaron Sterling, guitarist Sol Philcox-Littlefield and keyboardist Alex Wright, with LaCorte playing bass.
LaCorte lowered the key a half step, beefed up the basic foundation with a few extra tracks and recast the bridge, making that the part where the song’s intensity drops. As a result, the line “You don’t get to hear your name on the radio” stands out.
“A lot of times, I look at how the songs would be performed live,” he says. “This is a moment here where it’s just you and a spotlight out there on the catwalk, you throw the guitar behind your back, you grab the mic, and you’re just singing these lyrics. It’s super intimate, and that was kind of the moment I wanted it to feel like.”
Springsteen’s final vocal had all the intimacy that was required — and all the bite, finding that part of the spirit by listening to her now-disgraced former boyfriend’s voice on an old phone message “Her pitch is crazy good,” LaCorte says. “She has such an ear for pocket or the timing of her words. And she’s so in tune with it, too. So we’ll record a bunch of passes and piece together our favorite stuff. And she’s right on top of me for getting the timing right. I love an artist that’s particular about their vocal.”
“You Don’t Deserve a Country Song” teases Messing It Up, a collection due Mar. 24 as the first installment in a three-part album, Twenty Something. “It’s for everybody who’s decided that they’re done putting somebody else’s happiness first and they’re deciding to choose themselves,” Springsteen asserts. “I think there’s a lot of power and competence that comes from that.”
Zach Bryan, whose “Something In The Orange” reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs and Hot Rock & Alternative Songs charts, has signed a worldwide publishing deal with Warner Chappell Music. Warner Chappell declined to disclose terms of the deal.
Bryan, who is signed to Warner Records, has broken through as one of the brightest new artists of the past few years, including being named Billboard’s Top New Country Artist of 2022.
Los Angeles-based David Goldsen, WCM head of A&R, Australia and vp of creative, signed Bryan. “Zach is a truly generational songwriter and that was obvious from the first time I heard his music. Those songs then, along with countless more since, resonate with everyone who hears them. He’s a natural storyteller with an innate ability to write songs that are unapologetically raw and vulnerable. In a short amount of time, he’s captivated fans of all music, and we’re beyond lucky and thrilled to work with him.”
Goldsen began courting Bryan some time ago. “I’d like to personally thank David and the team over at Warner Chappell. I was just a confused kid in the Navy four years ago and they were the first people I talked to in the industry, literally,” Bryan said in a statement. “They never pushed a four-man writing team on me, they never asked me to do anything I didn’t want to do, they just believed in me. I owe them more than just support, I owe them back the faith they had in me as a barely 23-year-old Oklahoma kid walking around New York like a sore thumb.”
Bryan’s major-label debut, American Heartbreak, came out in May with Bryan penning all 34 songs by himself. It debuted atop Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart and hit No. 5 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart. According to Warner Chappell, he has surpassed one billion global streams.
“Zach has already had a record-breaking start to his career and there’s so much more to come,” said Warner Chappell Music president of North America Ryan Press. “He isn’t afraid to do things differently, and it’s been incredible to see him become such a positive force in the industry and reshape how singer/songwriters release music. This is a huge moment, and we’re very proud to be on this journey together as he continues to carve out his own path.”
Bryan’s Burn Burn Burn North American Tour kicks off May 10 at John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville, Va.
Zach Bryan, fresh off a collaboration with Maggie Rogers and a nomination for best country solo performance at Sunday’s Grammy Awards, seemingly deactivated his Twitter account on Tuesday (Feb. 7).
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When fans attempt to visit his @zachlanebryan Twitter handle, a message pops up, saying, “This account doesn’t exist,” though his Instagram account is still active.
A rep for Bryan declined to comment on Bryan’s now nonexistent Twitter handle. The deleted Twitter page is interesting, as Bryan is known for having a constant, direct connection with his fans, primarily via social media platforms.
The release of “Dawns,” featuring Rogers, was a promise fulfilled to Bryan’s fans, after he had previously vowed to release the track if the Philadelphia Eagles won against the New York Giants; on Jan. 21, the Eagles triumphed over the Giants, 38-7, writing their ticket to Sunday’s Super Bowl.
Currently, Bryan’s “Something in the Orange” sits atop Billboard‘s Hot Country Songs chart for a sixth week, while his American Heartbreak album ranks at No. 2 on the Top Country Albums chart, just behind Morgan Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album.
He followed American Heartbreak with the EP Summertime Blues and the live album All My Homies Hate Ticketmaster (Live From Red Rocks). True to his album title, Bryan’s upcoming Burn, Burn, Burn Tour will be handled primarily via AXS. The tour launches May 10 at John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville, Va., and concludes at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Mo., on Aug. 30 and includes stops in Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, New York and more.
New music from TOMORROW X TOGETHER and Morgan Wallen occupy the top five of Billboard’s Hot Trending Songs chart dated Feb. 11.
Billboard’s Hot Trending charts, powered by Twitter, track global music-related trends and conversations in real-time across Twitter, viewable over either the last 24 hours or past seven days. A weekly, 20-position version of the chart, covering activity from Friday through Thursday of each week, posts alongside Billboard’s other weekly charts on Billboard.com each Tuesday, with the latest tracking period running Jan. 27-Feb. 2.
“Tinnitus (Wanna Be a Rock),” from TOMORROW X TOGETHER’s new five-song EP The Name Chapter: TEMPTATION (released Jan. 27), starts at No. 1. It’s followed by fellow entries from the EP “Devil By the Window” (No. 3), the Coi LeRay-featuring “Happy Fools” (No. 5), “Farewell, Neverland” (No. 7) and “Sugar Rush Ride” (No. 15).
Concurrently, TEMPTATION bows at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, as previously reported, with 161,000 equivalent album units earned, according to Luminate. Each of the songs also reach the World Digital Song Sales tally, led by “Ride” at No. 1 (3,000 downloads).
Wallen’s “Everything I Love,” “Last Night” and “One Thing at a Time” appear on the ranking at Nos. 2, 4 and 16, respectively. The former two were released Jan. 31 ahead of the country singer’s new album, One Thing at a Time, due March 3, while the latter premiered in 2022.
“Night” and “Love” concurrently debut at Nos. 27 and 61, respectively, on the Billboard Hot 100, while “Time” jumps 73-54.
Linda Ronstadt’s “Long Long Time,” released in 1970, also sees a No. 6 debut thanks to its appearance in the Jan. 29 episode of HBO’s The Last of Us.
Keep visiting Billboard.com for the constantly evolving Hot Trending Songs rankings, and check in each Tuesday for the latest weekly chart.
Ahead of its release, Morgan Wallen’s album One Thing at a Time has already rung up seven top 10 hits on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart.
Wallen released a trio of tracks from the set on Jan. 31 and, of those, “Last Night” launches the highest — at No. 7 — on the streaming-, airplay- and sales-based survey (dated Feb. 11).
The album is due March 3 and will sport 36 songs, including nine released so far.
“Last Night” drew 11.8 million U.S. streams and sold 8,000 downloads in the week ending Feb. 2, according to Luminate. It arrives atop Country Digital Song Sales, awarding Wallen his ninth No. 1. It opens at No. 3 on Country Streaming Songs, marking his 19th top 10.
On Hot Country Songs, Wallen banks his 18th top 10. Here’s a rundown of the seven songs, including three No. 1s, already released from One Thing at a Time that have hit the chart’s top 10. All seven have also debuted at their peak ranks:
No. 1 (one week), April 30, 2022, “Don’t Think Jesus”
No. 1 (one week), May 21, 2022, “Thought You Should Know”
No. 1 (19 weeks), May 28, 2022, “You Proof”
No. 2, Dec. 17, 2022, “One Thing at a Time “
No. 5, Dec. 17, 2022, “Tennessee Fan”
No. 7, Dec. 17, 2022, “Days That End in Why”
No. 7, Feb. 11, 2023, “Last Night”
The two other tracks released Jan. 31 from One Thing at a Time, “I Wrote the Book” and “Everything I Love,” start at Nos. 16 and 18, respectively, on Hot Country Songs. “Book” corralled 6.7 million streams and sold 5,000, while “Love” drew 6.3 million clicks and sold 3,000.
Next week’s Feb. 18-dated charts will reflect the first full tracking week (Feb. 3-9) for each of the three tracks released Jan. 31.
Meanwhile, Wallen’s prior LP, the 30-song Dangerous: The Double Album, leads Top Country Albums for a record-extending 93rd week, with 42,000 equivalent album units (up 5%). The set has also generated seven Hot Country Songs top 10s.
Bryan Leads, Debuts
Zach Bryan’s “Something in the Orange” dominates Hot Country Songs for a sixth week. Plus, “Dawns,” his collaboration with Maggie Rogers, debuts at No. 13. Released Jan. 27, the latter drew 10 million streams through Feb. 2.
The pair co-wrote “Dawns,” which marks fellow singer-songwriter Rogers’ first country chart entry. She boasts three No. 1s, among five top 10s, on the Adult Alternative Airplay chart.
Hubbard Dances In
Tyler Hubbard posts his first top 10 as a soloist on Top Country Albums, as his self-titled debut LP starts at No. 8 with 15,000 equivalent album units. He co-penned all 18 songs on the set. Florida Georgia Line – the duo comprising Hubbard and Brian Kelley – has tallied four No. 1 albums among seven top 10s.
The set’s new single, “Dancin’ in the Country,” jumps 30-24 on Country Airplay with a 37% increase to 5.3 million impressions. It also drew 3.8 million streams and ranks at a new No. 26 high on Hot Country Songs. Lead single “5 Foot 9” led Country Airplay and hit No. 5 on Hot Country Songs.
King ‘Get’s Started
Meanwhile, Elle King’s Come Get Your Wife begins at No. 11 on Top Country Albums (13,000 units). She co-penned eight of the 13 songs on the set, which she co-produced with Ross Copperman.
The album’s current single “Worth a Shot,” featuring Dierks Bentley, ranks at No. 45 on both Country Airplay (1.8 million impressions, up 6%) and Hot Country Songs, as it also logged 2.2 million streams (up 14%). First single “Drunk (And I Don’t Wanna Go Home),” with Miranda Lambert, led Country Airplay and reached No. 6 on Hot Country Songs.
The new LP follows King’s Love Stuff and Shake the Spirit, which hit Nos. 3 and 9 on Top Rock & Alternative Albums in 2015 and 2018, respectively.
Kacey Musgraves hushed a chattering 2023 Grammy Awards audience on Sunday night (Feb. 5) when she played late country icon Loretta Lynn‘s signature song, “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” during the broadcast’s In Memoriam segment. Adding to the emotions of the moment, Musgraves played the song on her hero’s 1963 Epiphone acoustic guitar, complete with Lynn’s name emblazoned along the fretboard in mother of pearl.
Hours after the broadcast ended, Musgraves tweeted about how much it meant for her to honor Lynn in this unique way. “10 year old me singing Loretta’s songs would never have imagined I’d be putting my hands right where she made magic for decades. (Her 1963 Epiphone was a dream to play.),” Musgraves wrote along with two screenshots from the performance, including one in which a black and white image of Lynn strumming the same instrument was projected over Kacey’s shoulder.
“Thank you to @LorettaLynn’s daughters for trusting me with this moment of honor tonight. She paved my path,” Musgraves added. The official account for Lynn — who died in her sleep in October at 90 at her Tennessee home — responded with an in-kind thanks to Kacey for creating such a special moment.
“Thank you @KaceyMusgraves, for this beautiful tribute,” it read. “The love all of you have shown us for our mom is beyond words.” Musgraves performed “Daughter” as part of a segment that also featured projected images of late luminaries from Jeff Beck to Pharoah Sanders and Mo Ostin.
Musgraves’ performance was followed by moving tributes to Migos rapper Takeoff, delivered by Quavo and Maverick City Music, and Christine McVie, performed by Sheryl Crow, Bonnie Raitt and McVie’s Fleetwood Mac band mate, Mick Fleetwood.
Check out the tweets below.
10 year old me singing Loretta’s songs would never have imagined I’d be putting my hands right where she made magic for decades. (Her 1963 Epiphone was a dream to play.) Thank you to @LorettaLynn’s daughters for trusting me with this moment of honor tonight. She paved my path. pic.twitter.com/x06OOD2N5o— K A C E Y (@KaceyMusgraves) February 6, 2023
Luke Combs brought his native North Carolina to Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena for the 65th annual Grammy Awards Sunday (Feb. 5), delivering a twang-infused performance of “Going, Going, Gone” from his 2022 album, Growin’ Up.
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Combs, dressed in a gray plaid suit and trousers, sang the track — which details a woman who not only moves on easily, but also does not feel tied down — with his blue acoustic guitar and a backing band filled with drums and violins.
“Like a runaway southbound train/ Like an Arizona desert rain/ Like lightning in the sky/ Like fireworks in July/ Like a left field home run ball/ Like a whiskey shot at last call It’s like she was made for moving on/ That girl is going, going, gone,” the country star sang on the chorus.
“Going, Going, Gone” was released as the third single from his third studio album, Growin’ Up. The track peaked at No. 25 on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100, where it spent a total of 11 weeks. Meanwhile, Growin’ Up spent 33 weeks on the Billboard 200 and peaked at No. 2. The set marked the fourth No. 1 album for the country singer on the Top Country Albums chart following its release in October.
Combs was up for the best country Grammy with Growin’ Up. The album was beat out by Willie Nelson’s A Beautiful Time.
To kick off an extended In Memoriam segment at the 2023 Grammy Awards, Kacey Musgraves took the stage to deliver a somber acoustic take on a Loretta Lynn classic — while strumming Lynn’s personal guitar.
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Musgraves belted out “Coal Miner’s Daughter” while honoring the legendary country singer-songwriter, who passed away at the age of 90 in October. A bouquet of flowers sat at Musgraves’ feet as various music industry luminaries, from Jeff Beck to Pharaoh Sanders to Mo Ostin, flashed onscreen during the segment.
Musgraves’ performance was followed by moving tributes to Migos rapper Takeoff, delivered by Quavo and Maverick City Music, and Christine McVie, performed by Sheryl Crow, Bonnie Raitt and McVie’s Fleetwood Mac band mate Mick Fleetwood.
Lynn’s “Coal Miner’s Daughter” became one of her signature hits upon its 1970 release, topping Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart. In 2010, Lynn was bestowed with the lifetime achievement award at the Grammys. Nine years later, Musgraves won the Grammy for album of the year, for her third album, Golden Hour.
Click here for the updating list of Grammy award winners.
Shania Twain‘s new album, Queen of Me, has topped this week’s new music poll.
Music fans voted in a poll published Friday (Feb. 3) on Billboard, choosing the Canadian country-pop superstar’s first album in more than five years as their favorite new music release of the past week.
Queen of Me brought in nearly 88% of the vote, beating out new music from RAYE (My 21st Century Blues), GloRilla (“Internet Trolls”), Karol G and Romeo Santos (“X Si Volvemos”), and others.
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Preceded by singles “Waking Up Dreaming” and “Giddy Up!,” Twain’s latest studio set also lifts the icon’s title track to her 2022 compilation, Not Just a Girl (The Highlights), and incorporates the anthemic single into its 12-song track list.
Queen of Me, the first artist release through Republic Nashville, is the followup to Twain’s fifth studio album, Now, which blasted to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart in 2017. Prior to that, her fourth album release was 2002’s Up, which also hit No. 1 on the albums chart.
“I’m honored and excited to be the label’s first artist and lead the charge of this new and exciting chapter,” the five-time Grammy winner said in September 2022 when the deal was struck. “In this respect, it feels like a new beginning all around, and I’m embracing it wholeheartedly.”
Twain is slated to present at the 2023 Grammy Awards on Sunday (Feb. 5) and she’s the subject of the Netflix documentary Not Just A Girl, produced by Mercury Studios and directed by Joss Crowley.
See the final results of this week’s new music release poll below.
