Country Airplay in 2023 Has Seen the Fewest No. 1s in Nearly Two Decades – What’s Behind the Slowdown?

Jelly Roll’s “Save Me,” with Lainey Wilson, spends a second week at No. 1 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart (dated Dec. 16). The song drew 32.6 million audience impressions Dec. 1-7, according to Luminate.

The collab is the 18th to rise to No. 1 during 2023. That’s after 29 leaders in 2022, 32 in 2021, and 38 in 2020 – more than twice as many as this year.

Since Country Airplay launched in January 1990 (with Clint Black’s “Nobody’s Home,” the first No. 1), 934 songs have led, for an average of 27.5 No. 1s per year. 2016 housed the most, 40, while 2003 brought a yearly low of 18. Even if there’s a new No. 1 on each of the final two charts this year (dated Dec. 23 and 30), 2023 will sport the fewest since 2005, when 19 songs reigned.

(In 2003, one politically-themed hit, Daryl Worley’s “Have You Forgotten?,” commanded Country Airplay for seven weeks, while two superstar duets also logged long reigns: Toby Keith and Willie Nelson’s “Beer for My Horses,” for six weeks, and Alan Jackson and Jimmy Buffett’s “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere,” for eight.)

Notably, Morgan Wallen’s “Last Night” amassed eight weeks at No. 1 beginning this May – and is Billboard’s top Country Airplay song of the year. Plus, in 2023, and for the first time in 13 years, six consecutive chart-toppers scored multi-week rules. The run started in February with Wallen’s “Thought You Should Know,” which led for three weeks, and continued with, in order, Luke Combs’ “Going, Going, Gone” (two), Bailey Zimmerman’s “Rock and a Hard Place” (six), Wallen’s “Last Night” (eight), Combs’ “Fast Car” (five) and Jelly Roll’s “Need a Favor” (four).

Notably, “Fast Car” did not start as a radio single. As Columbia Nashville vice president of promotion and artist development Lauren Thomas tells Billboard, “We declared ‘Love You Anyway’ as the [lead] single [from Combs’ LP Gettin’ Old] based on listener/fan voting, but the demand for ‘Fast Car’ quickly became undeniable.”

Ultimately, both songs reached No. 1 on Country Airplay, reflecting a mix of tried-and-true label planning and independent audience activity both influencing chart runs, as streaming continues to help labels identify potential singles.

“I think we have a couple things happening,” KBAY San Jose, Calif., program director Bo Matthews said when Billboard examined the increasing lack of turnover atop Country Airplay at midyear. “The pop music cycle is not strong currently, and clearly country music is the winner. Consumption is higher with country music, and programmers are being smart, playing what their listeners want and embracing new country stars. What a great time to be in country music. We have the rock stars right now.”

“Familiarity breeds comfort,” Charlie Cook, Cumulus Media vp of country, said earlier this year. “Okay, that’s a mashup of the saying, but that’s the case with today’s country music. I know that some acts and labels are eager to move on, but I doubt that Wallen, Combs and the writers of these longtime radio hits feel the same.”