2023-08-24 10:59:46
Um US-Popstar Taylor Swift (33) really takes some popularity. Oliver Anthony did that. The previously unknown musician has catapulted himself to the top of the US charts with his country song “Rich Men North of Richmond”. After only about 14 days it stays on the YouTube video platform currently with 35 million clicks. The song was downloaded 147,000 times for a fee.
And: For the first time in the history of the US charts, a debut single “without previous chart history” made it straight to number 1, as the company Billboard recently announced. Where does the sudden success come from?
Republicans celebrate Anthony’s song
In recent weeks, Anthony’s song hotly debated politically. The song is particularly appropriated by audiences from the right-wing political spectrum. Right-wing influencers and Trumpists continue to push the reach. Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene told X (Twitter) that Anthony’s song is “what Washington DC needs to hear.” “Authentic” is what controversial podcaster Joe Rogan calls it; “True and touching,” Trump intimate Keri Lake.
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Oliver Anthony’s video will be shown at the first debate of the Republican nominees for the 2024 US Presidential campaign in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
© Picture: REUTERS/Brian Snyder
The topics addressed in the song: taxes, welfare fraud – and Jeffrey Epstein. According to the tenor, nothing is the same as it was in the good old days. Many have compared the song to Jason Aldean’s controversial conservative country hit “Try That in a Small Town.”
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The British Guardian partly calls the text a worker’s anthem. For example, Anthony sings “I’ve been sellin’ my soul, workin’ all day / Overtime hours for bullshit pay”. He criticizes high taxes, alludes to child abuse and Jeffrey Epstein.
The Democrats are also speaking out
The US Democrats also spoke up. The Senator Chris Murphy wrote on X that “progressives should hear this song too”. It shows a “reorientation”: “Anthony sings about the soullessness of work, shitty wages and the power of the elite. All problems for which the left have better solutions than the right.”
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The musician himself is unlikely to be enthusiastic about attempts at political appropriation. According to his own statement, he places himself politically “pretty much in the middle”. According to the industry newspaper, there is evidence that the song received support from some political camp Variety moreover none.
Anthony himself thanks his fans after his hit hit: “The hopelessness and frustration of our time is reflected in the reaction to this song. The song itself is nothing special, but the people who supported it are incredible and deserve to to be heard.”
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