Oliver Anthony’s controversial viral country song ‘Rich Men North Of Richmond’ makes US chart history

22 August, 2023

Oliver Anthony performing live

Country singer Oliver Anthony has made US chart history with his recent controversial single ‘Rich Men North Of Richmond’.

Released on August 8, the song has since hit Number One on the iTunes Country Charts, soared to the top spot on Apple Music’s Global Music Charts, and racked up over 32million views on YouTube.

The track has now debuted at Number One on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, making Anthony – a former factory worker and farmer – the first artist to do so without any prior chart history (via Billboard).

Anthony (real name is Christopher Anthony Lunsford) is just the sixth person in Billboard history to debut a first solo Hot 100 entry at Number One, following in the footsteps of Zayn, Baauer, Carrie Underwood, Fantasia and Clay Aiken.

In addition to this feat, Anthony has marked a rare appearance for an unsigned act at Number One on the Hot 100 having self-released ‘Rich Men…’.

“The hopelessness and frustration of our times resonate in the response to this song,” he told Billboard after reaching the top of the Hot 100. “The song itself is not anything special, but the people who have supported it are incredible and deserve to be heard.”

Upon its release, ‘Rich Men…’ was praised by various right-wing media figures including Dan Bongino and Matt Walsh. Republication representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, meanwhile, described it as “the anthem of the forgotten Americans who truly support this nation and unfortunately the world”.

But other people have criticised the single for being “fatphobic” and labelled it a “right-wing anthem”.

Despite highlighting societal issues such as homelessness in the US and the nation’s mental health crisis, the song sees Anthony punch down on the “obese milkin’ welfare“. He sings that “if you’re 5-foot-3 and you’re 300 pounds/ Taxes ought not to pay for your bags of fudge rounds“.

‘Rich Men…’ could in part be interpreted as a working-class anthem, as Anthony mentions “sellin’ my soul” for “bullshit pay“, and lambasts politicians and the “rich men north of Richmond” who “just wanna have total control“.

However, he takes an anti-taxes stance too. “‘Cause your dollar ain’t shit, and it’s taxed to no end,” he sings elsewhere.

According to Luminate, ‘Rich Men…’ registered 17.5million streams and sold 147,000 downloads in the tracking week ending August 17. Additionally, the tune received 553,000 radio airplay audience impressions, the majority of which were on country stations.

The song is the first solo-written Number One on the Hot 100 since Glass Animals’ ‘Heat Waves’, which was written by the Oxford band’s frontman Dave Bayley.

It is also the first song by a solo male to start atop both the Hot 100 and Hot Country Songs at the same time. It’s the second overall, after Taylor Swift’s ‘All Too Well (Taylor’s Version)’ opened at Number One on both charts in late 2021.

Anthony held his debut public concert in Currituck, North Carolina earlier this month off the back of the recent hype. “No words… Thank you,” he wrote, captioning footage of the performance and what appeared to be a packed-out crowd.

In a statement on social media (via the Guardian), Anthony said he wasn’t rushing into signing a record deal just yet.

“People in the music industry give me blank stares when I brush off eight million dollar offers,” he explained. “I don’t want six tour buses, 15 tractor trailers and a jet. I don’t want to play stadium shows, I don’t want to be in the spotlight.

“I wrote the music I wrote because I was suffering with mental health and depression. These songs have connected with millions of people on such a deep level because they’re being sung by someone feeling the words in the very moment they were being sung.”

Anthony continued: “No editing, no agent, no bullshit. Just some idiot and his guitar. The style of music that we should have never gotten away from in the first place.”

Draven Riffe – Anthony’s co-manager, and the sole producer of ‘Rich Men North Of Richmond’ – said “there was not a whole lot of planning involved” ahead of releasing the song.

“We just knew if we got the video out there, people were going to love the song and it would resonate with a lot of folks,” he added.

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