A country song with anti-elite lyrics by an obscure American farmer, which is making waves on social media and among conservatives, topped the music sales and listening charts in the United States Monday, according to the Billboard page United States.
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Oliver Anthony and his track “Rich Men North of Richmond,” named after the Virginia capital located 110 miles south of Washington, overtook megastars Taylor Swift, Morgan Wallen and Olivia Rodrigo to take the top spot on the Billboard charts. Hot 100 dated week of August 26th and will be released this Tuesday.
According to the Billboard website, whose Hot 100 reflects appearances of every record, stream and radio and music genre in the United States, this marks the first time an unknown songwriter who has never charted has accomplished such a feat.
“Rich Men North of Richmond” was released on YouTube on August 11 and within two days reached number one on the country charts on Apple Music’s iTunes platform. According to Billboard, it was streamed around 17.5 million times and downloaded 147,000 times in less than a week.
Accompanied by bluegrass music, a branch of country, the lyrics denounce the harshness of life for the working class and most disadvantaged in the face of the privileges of the wealthy and the elite of the first world power.
Conservative magnate Rupert Murdoch’s tabloid, The New York Post, called the song “the political anthem of workers” in the United States.
Anthony, who describes himself as a Virginia farmer, contrasts “people on the streets who have nothing to eat” with “overweight people who gobble up welfare”.
A passage is moved by the rise in suicides among young American men.
In his video, Anthony, a blond guy with a red beard, dressed in a green T-shirt, an acoustic guitar slung over his shoulder, is staged in the undergrowth, playing and singing at the microphone.
Rich Men North of Richmond makes great use of the fact that the country is politically divided between the rural, conservative South and Center and the progressive cities of the East and West Coasts.
According to the New York Times, the song is actually being promoted by the right and far right, particularly ultra-conservative commentators Laura Ingraham and Matt Walsh.
Congressional Republican-elect Republican of Georgia (South) Marjorie Taylor Greene, Donald Trump supporter and conspiracy theorist, also hailed on X (formerly Twitter) “the anthem of Americans long forgotten by our administration.”