Topline
Largely unknown just a few weeks ago, country singer-songwriter Oliver Anthony’s “Rich Men North of Richmond” is topping charts thanks to a wave of social media attention championed by right-wing fans—and the sales and streaming boosts are spreading to his other songs, some of which are similarly political.
Anthony achieved his first Billboard No. 1 hit with “Rich Men North of Richmond.” (Photo by Mike … [+] Caudill for Billbaord/Billboard via Getty Images)
Key Facts
The top three songs on U.S. iTunes belong to Anthony—“Rich Men North of Richmond” is followed by “I Want to Go Home” and “Ain’t Gotta Dollar.”
Anthony charts 19 songs in the top 70 of the U.S. iTunes chart.
Anthony released a live performance of “I Want to Go Home” on Tuesday, which has garnered 1.5 million views in just 20 hours of release and ranks No. 1 on the YouTube trending chart.
Like his breakout hit, “I Want to Go Home” contains political lyrics: Anthony laments how “there’s always some kind of bill to pay,” criticizes the rich elite and nods to mental health struggles.
The video for “Rich Men North of Richmond,” originally posted on August 8, has surpassed 35 million views on YouTube and tops the YouTube trending chart for music videos.
“Rich Men North of Richmond” ranks third on the U.S. Spotify chart with 1.5 million streams, just behind Doja Cat’s “Paint the Town Red” and Gunna’s “fukumean,” and it has been streamed more than 20 million times since its release.
Key Background
Anthony is a farmer from Farmville, Virginia, who started writing and performing his own music in 2021. He said in a YouTube video he considers music an outlet for difficult times he’s experienced, including spending “a lot of nights getting high and getting drunk” and his 12-hour shifts in a North Carolina factory. “Rich Men North of Richmond” hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 after the song went viral among right-wing users on social media. Some notable pundits, including Matt Walsh and Ben Shapiro, as well as politicians Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and former Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, have championed the song and shared it to their social media followers, helping the song gain notoriety. The song was criticized by some on the left wing, primarily for lyrics that some say punches down on welfare recipients (“The obese milkin’ welfare… taxes ought not to pay for your bags of fudge rounds”). Upon topping the Billboard chart, the song had 17.5 million streams and sold 147,000 downloads.
What To Watch For
How well will Anthony’s songs fare on the Billboard charts next week? With “Rich Men North of Richmond,” Anthony became the first artist in Billboard history to debut at No. 1 on the Hot 100 with no prior history on the charts.
Crucial Quote
“Son, we’re on the brink of the next world war / And I don’t think nobody’s prayin’ no more,” Anthony sings in “I Want to Go Home.” He doubles down on the religious theme in the music video, which concludes with the Mark 8:36 Bible verse: “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”
Tangent
Anthony’s song “Rich Man’s Gold” also contains lyrics alluding to poverty and lamenting taxation. He sings about his grandfather, who grew up on “dirt floors,” telling Anthony: “ “You won’t born to just pay bills and die.” Some of his songs reference his drug use, like “Virginia,” an ode to his home state in which he sings: “I’ve got a lighter, I’ve got a bowl / I know a spot where the law don’t go.” In “Ain’t Gotta Dollar,” another song referencing poverty, Anthony sings of other pleasures like smoking and drinking wine. In “I’ve Got To Get Sober,” Anthony says the “liquor and the bowl” have been “saving my soul,” but he sings of a desire to get sober and “start living right.”
Further Reading
Country Music’s Having A Moment — Understanding The Hits, Controversies, And Records Broken (Forbes)
Viral ‘Rich Men North Of Richmond’ Hits No. 1 On Billboard Hot 100 In Chart Debut (Forbes)
