Oliver Anthony Music Courtesy Photo
The initially Republican discussion on Wednesday evening (Aug. 23) began with an inquiry concerning today’s Billboard Hot 100 graph mattress topper, Oliver Anthony Music’s “Rich Men North of Richmond.”
“As we sit here tonight, the No. 1 song on the Billboard chart is called ‘Rich Men North of Richmond.’ It is by a singer from Farmville, Virginia, named Oliver Anthony. His lyrics speak of alienation, a deep frustration with the state of government and of this country,” co-moderator Martha MacCallum said to the candidates. “Washington D.C. is about 100 miles north of Richmond,” she proceeded. “Why is this song striking such a nerve in this country right now?”
On Friday (Aug. 25), Anthony himself required to YouTube to share his ideas concerning his speedy success, and also concerning exactly how his track has actually made its method right into political conversations. “The one thing that has bothered me is seeing people wrap politics up into this,” the vocalist stated in the 10-minute clip. “It’s aggravating seeing people on conservative news trying to identify with me like I’m one of them.”
He proceeded, “It seems like certain people want to ride the attention of this song to make their own selves relevant, and that’s aggravating as hell. The other thing that I find aggravating is, well, it was funny seeing my song at the presidential debate, because I wrote that song about those people. For them to sit there and listen to that, that cracks me up.”
Anthony described that “Rich Men” has “nothing to do with Joe Biden, and it’s a lot bigger than Joe Biden,” prior to increasing down that the tunes are blogged about “those people on that stage” and also various other political leaders.
“I hate to see that song being weaponized,” he included. “That s— has got to stop.”
Anthony’s outbreak viral hit “Rich Men North of Richmond” debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 tunes graph. Among various other graph success for the singer-songwriter, he’s the very first musician ever before to introduce atop the checklist without any previous graph background in any kind of kind.
Watch his complete video clip reaction listed below.
