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A previously unknown singer’s country song, which touches on class strife in America and has been grabbed upon by politicians, has debuted at the top of the US charts, according to Billboard.
“Rich Men North of Richmond” by Oliver Anthony has surpassed megastars Taylor Swift, Morgan Wallen, and Olivia Rodrigo to claim the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.
According to Billboard, Anthony, who has identified himself as a farmer from rural Virginia, is the first artist to debut at the top of the chart “with no prior chart history in any form.”
In less than a week, the song has been streamed 17.5 million times and downloaded 147,000 times, according to Billboard.
On August 11, the song was posted on YouTube and immediately rose to the top of Apple’s country chart after striking a chord on social media and garnering millions of views.
Anthony’s songs address concerns such as working long hours for little money and paying excessive taxes.
He also picks up on talking lines that have remained since Ronald Reagan’s business-friendly, pro-austerity years, particularly the welfare state.
“Lord, we got folks in the street, ain’t got nothing to eat / And the obese milking welfare,” sings Anthony.
“Well God, if you’re 5 foot 3 and you’re 300 pounds / Taxes ought not to pay for your bags of fudge rounds.”
In a clip Anthony belts out the twangy tune sitting in front of a wooded area complete with a camo-deer blind, which is used for hunting.
The title of the song refers to a widely held belief that Americans in the south, and more broadly rural communities outside of the country’s coastal cities, have been left behind by those in power. Richmond is the capital of Virginia and is about two hours south of Washington.
Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene, a US lawmaker from Georgia known for supporting far-right conspiracy theories, remarked on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, that Anthony’s song is one “that Washington DC needs to hear.”
Conversely, Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, a Democrat, said on the same social media platform that “progressives should listen to this.”
In a video posted to his YouTube channel Anthony insists his political views are “pretty dead center.”
At a concert in North Carolina on Saturday, he told Fox News: “I don’t see our country lasting another generation the way we are headed. We got to go back to the roots of what made this country great in the first place.”
