Oliver Anthony Music’s ‘Rich Men North of Richmond’ enjoys a second week atop the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart as the first artist to launch at the top with no prior chart history.
Last week, Oliver Anthony made headlines as the first artist to launch atop the Billboard Hot 100 chart with no prior charting history. This week, the singer-songwriter’s viral hit, “Rich Men North of Richmond,” has enjoyed a two-week run thus far at the top of the chart, gaining radio airplay as it continues as the top-selling track and most-streamed song of the week.
That marks the single’s second week at No. 1 on the Digital Song Sales chart while it leaps 4-1 on Streaming Songs. Notably, of the 34 songs to premiere at the top of the Hot 100 this decade, “Rich Men North of Richmond” is only the second to increase in streams in its second week (from 17.5 million to 22.9 million), following Olivia Rodrigo’s “Good 4 U,” (from 43.2 million to 62.7 million) — which was boosted by the No. 1 Billboard 200 albums chart arrival of her debut release, “Sour.”
“Rich Men North of Richmond” gained 22.9 million streams — up 31% from the first week — and sold 117,000 downloads (down 20%) in the tracking week of August 18-24, according to data from Luminate. “Richmond” also sits atop Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart for the second week.
Without receiving radio promotion, the song has notched 2.3 million airplay audience impressions — up 310% from last week. Further, “Richmond” debuted on the Country Airplay at No. 45, with 90% of its overall airplay (2 million of 2.3 million) from the chart’s panel of reporting stations.
Interestingly, “Richmond” is only the eighth Hot 100 No. 1 song in the chart’s history to reference a US city in its title — and the first since 1985’s “Miami Vice Theme” by Jan Hammer. Other songs on that list include 1975’s “Philadelphia Freedom” by Elton John, “The Night Chicago Died” by Paper Lace in 1974, “The Sound of Philadelphia (T.S.O.P.)” by MFSB in 1974, Marty Robbins’ 1960 hit “El Paso,” 1959’s “The Battle of New Orleans” by Johnny Horton, and Wilbert Harrison’s “Kansas City,” also from 1959.