Country
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What’s better than some new country music on the Fourth of July? Zach Bryan unveiled his highly anticipated new album, The Great American Bar Scene, on Thursday (July 4) via Warner Records. Guests on the set include Bruce Springsteen, John Mayer, Noeline Hofmann and John Moreland. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See […]
Though Black artists have made major strides on the recent country music scene — with Beyoncé and Shaboozey launching No. 1 hits and acts like Brittney Spencer and Tanner Adell marking breakthroughs — racism in the genre still exists. For Americana-country husband-and-wife duo The War and Treaty, it came last week at the Coca-Cola Sips & Sounds Music Festival in Austin, Texas.
Ahead of their performance, Michael Trotter Jr. tells The Hollywood Reporter, “There was a cotton plant” in their dressing room. “And we all know what that means. We all know what that represents in this country to people that look like us.”
“Anger is what I felt. Disrespect is what I felt. Sadness is what I felt. Sadness not just because of what that plant represents to people that look like me but sadness for myself because I am a son of this country. I served this country honorably in the United States Army 16th Infantry, 2nd Brigade, 1st Armored Division. I’m wounded for that service. I’m very vocal about my wounds and my scars, and I felt betrayed,” he explains. “It’s not fair. It’s something that white artists don’t have to worry about at all. … It just happens to come through the bowels of this genre. So, I feel that it’s not enough for us to talk about it, we have to demand that we be about it.”
The Grammy-nominated duo went on to perform on the main stage, though Trotter explains: “When I demanded that we quickly leave this festival and get out of there, Tanya and I had a moment in our hotel room where we wanted to address our son, Legend, who’s 12, and he ended up addressing us. He said that this is not the time to be quiet about it. He was very upset, and he understood exactly what it meant. He’s home schooled, and he knows what that means, and he doesn’t know what it means because Ty and I have sat down and drilled it in his head.”
The War and Treaty released their major-label debut, Lover’s Game, to critical acclaim last year and made history at the 2023 CMA and ACM Awards, becoming the first Black performers to be nominated for duo of the year at both shows. And they launched their first Top 15 hit on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 chart with “Hey Driver,” their collaboration with streaming juggernaut Zach Bryan.
This year, they earned two Grammy nominations, including best new artist; they performed during the In Memoriam segment at the Emmy Awards; and they will open for The Rolling Stones at SoFi Stadium on July 10 and 13.
Tanya Trotter says their experience in Austin “hits hard when you are a granddaughter of a sharecropper.”
“My grandfather actually bought the plantation that he picked cotton on in New Bern, North Carolina. My family actually still lives there. So when you see these things, you look at it and you’re like, ‘Wow, even though my grandfather bought the plantation, there’s still a lot of pain rooted for people that didn’t get an opportunity to change it into economic development for their families.’ I didn’t want to sit in there and educate because it’s not my position to educate anybody on what cotton is and what it represents in this country. It just shouldn’t happen. Beyond it just being about racism, it’s broader now. It’s now a safety issue because we have to feel safe coming to these festivals,” she says.
She continues, “If we’re going to infiltrate and we’re going to have Black people, Asian people, Hispanic people, then you have to look at it as a safety issue the same way they did when they integrated the school in Arkansas. They had the police there. It has to be safe for people to come to get an education, to be entertained, whatever the case may be. So that’s the position that I take as we are moving into this genre and the spaces broadening not just for us but for everyone. Anybody with melanin in their skin, you have to provide an environment of safety for them.”
A representative for the Sips & Sounds Music Festival didn’t immediately respond to The Hollywood Reporter’s request for comment.
“My skin color is red, white and blue — the flag. I’m an American soldier. That is what this country called upon when it asked me to serve, so I feel betrayed,” Michael says. “Yes, it’s a safety issue, but it is bigger than that. It is a humane problem. It is humanity, and I was put in a position where I felt I had to protect my wife, and my son, and my daughter, and my band members at all costs, which would mean I got to go into war mode in my own country.”
This article was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter.
A look at patriotic songs from Toby Keith, Johnny Cash, John Conlee, Brooks & Dunn and more.
The Contenders is a midweek column that looks at artists aiming for the top of the Billboard charts, and the strategies behind their efforts. Next week (for the upcoming Billboard Hot 100 dated July 13), one of the biggest breakout artists of the year hopes to take a post-4th of July victory lap with his first crossover hit.
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Shaboozey, “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” (American Dogwood/EMPIRE/Magnolia Music): For the last two and a half months, as established superstars like Taylor Swift and Kendrick Lamar and rising phenoms like Sabrina Carpenter and Tommy Richman have all made their big bows on the Hot 100, one artist has consistently been lurking just offscreen, slowly gathering steam: Shaboozey. The country singer-songwriter, who made his Hot 100 debut earlier this year via a pair of feature appearances on Beyoncé’s acclaimed Cowboy Carter album, bowed on the chart with “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” in April, and shot to No. 3 in May, before receding a bit as the crowded chart fielded new runaway smashes seemingly every week.
But now, the breakout hit is closer than it’s ever been: “Bar Song” reaches a new peak of No. 2 on the chart this week, with the song continuing to stream and sell very well – particularly the latter, as it reigns for a seventh week on Digital Song Sales. And it still has room to grow on radio, where it’s been climbing the Radio Songs tally (8-7 this week) and is still gaining momentum across formats – including on country radio, climbing 17-12 on Country Airplay. (If it goes top 10 on that chart next week, it will become the first song to ever reach that tier on each of Billboard’s Country Airplay, Pop Airplay, Adult Pop Airplay and Rhythmic Airplay charts.)
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Helping with the song’s momentum: a big showcase at Sunday’s (June 30) BET Awards, with Shaboozey becoming the very rare country act to get a full-song performance on Culture’s Biggest Night – and seizing the opportunity with a party-starting rendition of the song, including late guest appearance from St. Louis rapper J-Kwon, whose 2004 classic “Tipsy” it heavily interpolates. With the race already looking to be a close one, any amount of streaming or sales bump from that performance might be enough to put “A Bar Song” over the top on next week’s Hot 100.
Post Malone feat. Morgan Wallen, “I Had Some Help” (Mercury/Big Loud/Republic): Post Malone may finally be on the way to moving on from the wildly successful first taste of his long-promised country pivot, with the release two Fridays ago (June 21) of his second single from his upcoming F-1 Trillion set, the Blake Shelton collab “Pour Me a Drink.” That song is also off to a strong start on the Hot 100, debuting at No. 12, tying Shelton’s best-ever peak on the listing (with 2013’s “Boys ‘Round Here,” featuring Pistol Annies & Friends).
However, predecessor “I Had Some Help” is far from done, as it returns to the Hot 100’s apex this week for a sixth total frame on top – while also topping Radio Songs for the first time. Its streams are finally starting to slip a little, however, as the song descends 2-4 on Streaming Songs this week. So it will likely either need to continue building on radio — it hits the top five this week on both Pop Airplay and Adult Pop Airplay — or get a bit of a 4th of July barbecue bump to hold off Shaboozey and secure a seventh week atop the chart next week.
IN THE MIX
Sabrina Carpenter, “Espresso” & “Please Please Please” (Island): She may be done at No. 1 for the time being, after “Please Please Please” netted her first Hot 100-topper a week ago, but both that song and “Espresso” remain stable smashes for Sabrina Carpenter, ranking at Nos. 4 and 5 respectively on the Hot 100 this week, with major streaming profiles. “Espresso” has also long established its bonafides on radio, moving into the Radio Songs top five this week, but it may have to make room for “Please” soon as well, as that song is the Hot 100’s top Airplay Gainer this week, debuting at No. 24 on Pop Airplay (with help from radio edits replacing the end of its signature “don’t embarrass me, motherf—ker” lyric with “mother trucker” and/or “little sucker”).
Chappell Roan, “Good Luck, Babe!” (KRA/Amusement/Island): Chappell Roan has been diversifying her Hot 100 takeover over the past month: She now has five different songs currently climbing the chart, with “Casual” (No. 82) joining “Pink Pony Club” (No. 66), “Red Wine Supernova” (No. 46), “Hot To Go!” (No. 38) and “Good Luck Babe” (No. 11) at the party this week. She still hasn’t reached the chart’s top 10 – but that may change next week, as “Babe” continues to grow both on the DSPs (hitting the Streaming Songs top 10 this week) and the airwaves (moving 19-17 on Pop Airplay).
GloRilla, “TGIF” (CMG/Interscope/ICLG): Rihanna isn’t recording and releasing songs at the frequency she used to, but that doesn’t mean she’s lost her touch as a hitmaker – now it’s just other artists’ songs she’s blowing up. GloRilla’s latest single “TGIF” exploded on social media and streaming over the past weekend after RiRi posted a video of her rapping along with the song to a stern-looking A$AP Rocky – and now it looks well on its way to being her third major hit of the year, following “Yeah Glo!” and the Megan Thee Stallion collab “Wanna Be.” It’s not likely to hit the top 10 next week, but if its momentum continues it could be in the hunt soon enough – especially if Rihanna were ever to grace a remix of the song.
The TikTok Billboard Top 50 chart’s top four remains intact from the June 29-dated tally, while a newcomer in Ella Langley joins them in the top five of the July 6 survey.
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The TikTok Billboard Top 50 is a weekly ranking of the most popular songs on TikTok in the United States based on creations, video views and user engagement. The latest chart reflects activity June 24-30. Activity on TikTok is not included in Billboard charts except for the TikTok Billboard Top 50.
Tommy Richman’s “Million Dollar Baby” leads the list again, stringing together its eighth week at No. 1, the longest reign of any song since the chart began in September 2023.
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The song is followed by Tinashe’s “Nasty,” Sabrina Carpenter’s “Please Please Please” and Billie Eilish’s “Birds of a Feather” at Nos. 2-4, respectively, their same order on the June 29 list.
But not all is the same in the top five. Ella Langley’s “You Look Like You Love Me,” featuring Riley Green, follows its No. 9 debut with a four-spot jump to No. 5.
Its leap is concurrent with the song’s premiere on the multimetric Billboard Hot 100; “You Look Like You Love Me” bows at No. 53, Langley’s first time on the Hot 100 and Green’s highest ranking appearance since Thomas Rhett’s “Half of Me,” on which he was also featured, peaked at No. 52 in 2022.
“You Look Like You Love Me” earned 8.6 million official U.S. streams and sold 3,000 downloads in the June 21-27 tracking week, according to Luminate.
The tune was released June 21 but had been teased on TikTok prior, going as far back as the beginning of May, building pre-release hype. The ensuing trend surrounding the song has involved all forms of love, from pets to significant others to offspring. In particular, many uploads show photo collages of couples on their wedding day.
“You Look Like You Love Me” leapfrogs Jordan Adetunji’s “Kehlani,” which also entered the TikTok Billboard Top 50’s top 10 on the June 29 survey; it lifts 7-6 on the latest list. “Kehlani” is mostly driven by a dance trend on TikTok, though uploads from its namesake artist have also helped the song soar on TikTok and beyond.
“Kehlani” concurrently debuts at No. 70 on the Hot 100; like Langley, it’s Adetunji’s first appearance on the chart. In the week ending June 27, it earned 8.1 million streams and 511,000 radio audience impressions.
A pair of songs populate the TikTok Billboard Top 50’s top 10 for the first time, led by BossMan DLow’s “Shake Dat Ass (Twerk Song),” which follows its No. 25 debut on the June 29 ranking by leaping to No. 9. It’s followed by a debut from BlackMayo, whose “Jus’ Know” starts at No. 10.
“Shake Dat Ass,” featured on the rapper’s 2023 album Too Slippery, has achieved recent TikTok virality via a dance trend. “Jus’ Know,” meanwhile, has been out since 2018 but is also the recipient of a dance-fueled trend, featuring a high-profile upload in the form of newly drafted NBA player Jared McCain, whose video in his Philadelphia 76ers jersey has accumulated over 2 million favorites.
“Jus’ Know” sports a 63% boost in streams to 200,000 in the week ending June 27, while “Shake Dat Ass” achieves a 203% jump to 1.5 million listens.
See the full TikTok Billboard Top 50 here. You can also tune in each Friday to SiriusXM’s TikTok Radio (channel 4) to hear the premiere of the chart’s top 10 countdown at 3 p.m. ET, with reruns heard throughout the week.
Darius Rucker thinks it’s time for fans and critics to forgive Morgan Wallen for his use of a racist slur. In an interview with Rolling Stone‘s Music Now podcast, the Hootie and the Blowfish singer and solo star said three years after Wallen was caught in a video repeatedly using the N-word the 31-year-old “Last Night” singer is a different person.
“I think Morgan’s become a better person since that,” Rucker told RS. “I’ve known Morgan a long time. Since all that happened Morgan’s tried to really better himself and become a better person and see the world in a much better, better was.”
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In a February 2021 video, Wallen was caught yelling the N-word and other expletives while arriving home with some friends. At the time, Wallen apologized, telling TMZ, “I’m embarrassed and sorry. I used an unacceptable and inappropriate racial slur that I wish I could take back. There are no excuses to use this type of language, ever. I want to sincerely apologize for using the word. I promise to do better.”
Though Wallen’s career eventually continued apace, even picking up steam, the immediate fallout included his music briefly being pulled from streaming and radio, a suspension from his label and getting dropped by his booking agent, as well as the Academy of Country Music deeming him ineligible for the 56th annual awards.
By the end of that year, though, Wallen’s catalog had racked up more than $8 million in revenue as U.S. sales skyrocketed, he broke a series of records on the Billboard charts, hit the road again and watched his radio airplay more than double. His Dangerous album went on to win album of the year at the 2022 ACM Awards and Wallen collected 11 trophies at the 2023 Billboard Music Awards
Despite that bounce back, Rucker told RS that it feels like Wallen is still living under the cloud of his racist incident. “You know, he’s not forgiven. He’s still not out for CMAs and ACMs,” Rucker said. “They can say what they want, but the fact that Morgan Wallen is not up for entertainer of the year and those things is crazy. No one’s selling more tickets than Morgan.”
Despite the cold shoulder Rucker said Wallen is still getting, the singer has continued to crank out hits, including his No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 smash “I Had Some Help” with Post Malone. The singer once again courted controversy recently, though, again apologizing to fans in April after he was arrested for allegedly throwing a chair off the roof of a Nashville bar. Wallen was arrested and briefly jailed on April 8 after police said he tossed a chair from the sixth-floor roof of Eric Church’s then-new bar Chief’s, with the seat reportedly landing just a few feet away from two Metro Nashville police officers. Wallen was arrested and charged with three felony counts of reckless endangerment and one misdemeanor count of disorderly conduct.
He later posted a tweet apologizing for the incident, revealing that he’d reached out to Nashville police, his family and the Chief’s crew to make amends. “I’m not proud of my behavior, and I accept responsibility…. I have the utmost respect for the officers working every day to keep us all safe,” he said at the time.
Miranda Lambert had to take a break during a show at Momentum Bank Ballpark in Midland, TX over the weekend when two female fans started scrapping during a performance of her ballad “Tin Man.” In a TikTok of the incident, Lambert is performing the song solo acoustic when she stops to ask if everyone is […]
Willie Nelson will be on stage on the fourth of July on Thursday after skipping the first seven dates of his Outlaw Music Festival due to an unspecified illness. The 91-year-old country icon is slated to perform at the gig in Camden, N.J. after missing Tuesday night’s (July 2) concert in Mansfield, MA at the […]
The all-star tribute album Petty Country: A Country Music Celebration of Tom Petty makes a chart-topping debut, as the set enters at No. 1 on Billboard’s Compilation Albums chart (dated July 6). It also scores top 10 bows on Top Album Sales and Top Current Album Sales, and top 20-ranking entries on Top Country Albums, […]
Lainey Wilson has been making country cool again on her headlining tour this summer, but in between tour stops and gearing up for the release of her album Whirlwind on Aug. 23, she’s also had the prestige of opening for rock band The Rolling Stones on the group’s The Hackney Diamonds Tour. Explore Explore See […]