Lil Nas X’s ‘Old Town Road’ Is Officially The Number One Song In The Country

Columbia Records

It’s official. The meme heard around the world is now the number one song on Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart. Lil Nas X‘s “Old Town Road” has taken a long and unexpected road to the top since the 19-year-old first dubbed the song over shots from the video game Red Dead Redemption 2 and posted it to YouTube back in December.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ho88VXJTBg

The track first gained traction as a meme on the music-focused, short video sharing app TikTok. In countless videos uploaded to the platform, kids would dance to the country/trap banger and suddenly transform into cowboy versions of themselves as the song’s beat drops. In March, when the song debuted on both the Hot R&B/Hip Hop chart and the Hot Country Songs chart, this prompted Billboard to controversially remove it from the latter. After much discussion and a boost from none other than Billy Ray Cyrus, the song has climbed 14 spots to dethrone Arianna Grande’s “7 Rings” at the top of the charts.

https://twitter.com/LilNasX/status/1115400007698374656

As a result, Lil Nas X has now become the first artist unaccompanied by another act to top the Hot 100 list on a first attempt since Cardi B’s “Bodak Yellow” in the summer of 2017. According to Billboard, Lil Nas X is also the first male artist (in a leading role) to top the Hot 100 in a first visit since Desiigner took “Panda” to the top for two weeks in May 2016.

(Via Billboard)