Oliver Anthony’s Rich Men North of Richmond, the out-of-nowhere country song that went viral earlier this month, has debuted at number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, making him the first artist to do this with no prior chart history in any form.
The song, which Anthony says is the first he ever recorded with a professional microphone, was widely shared online along with a video of the bearded, Virginia-based singer playing an acoustic guitar in the woods. The song was streamed 17.5m times during the week ending 17 August, and a video of Anthony’s performance posted by the channel RadioWV has racked up 30m views in 12 days.
