Rich Men North of Richmond

"Rich Men North of Richmond" is a song by American folk singer Oliver Anthony. It was released in August 2023. The song became very popular fast. It was the number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. This means that Anthony is the first artist to do this without Billboard success before.

 The song 
The song was first uploaded to YouTube on August 8, 2023. It had 5 million views in three days. Anthony self-recorded songs on his cell phone before. "Rich Men North of Richmond" was Anthony's first professional song. The song lyrics mentioned working long hours, but not being payed much.

In a video explaining his songwriting, Anthony said that his lyrics are attempting to speak for the working class and that he aspires to be a "voice for those people", noting that "whatever it is they're doing, they can't quite get ahead". Anthony has described his politics as "dead center". The song was played at a debate for the Republican presidential primary. Anthony said he did not like this because the song critiques them.

 Success of the song 
"Rich Men North of Richmond" was at the number one spot on Billboard Hot 100 on August 26, 2023, with 147,000 downloads and 17.5 million streams that week.

 Charts 
+Chart performance for "Rich Men North of Richmond"Chart (2023)Peak
positionAustralia (ARIA)13Ireland (IRMA)13Netherlands (Global Top 40)11New Zealand (Recorded Music NZ)17Sweden (Sverigetopplistan)58

References

Category:Single chart usages for Canada
Category:Single chart called without song
Category:Single chart usages for Billboardglobal200
Category:Single chart usages for UK
Category:Single chart called without artist
Category:Single chart usages for UKindie
Category:Single chart usages for Billboardhot100
Category:Single chart usages for Billboardcountryairplay
Category:Single chart usages for Billboardcountrysongs
Category:Protest songs
Category:2023 songs
Category:Billboard Hot 100 number one songs
Category:Country songs
Category:Folk songs