Luke Combs’ ‘Forever After All,’ New at No. 1 on Hot Country Songs & No. 2 on Hot 100: ‘Doesn’t Happen Without My Wife’
#Music
Luke Combs’ “Forever After All” blasts in atop Billboard’s airplay-, streaming- and sales-based Hot Country Songs chart dated Nov. 7.
The song, released on River House/Columbia Nashville, is just the sixth to have arrived at the summit since the chart began as an all-encompassing genre survey in 1958. It’s the second this year, after Morgan Wallen’s “7 Summers” arrived atop the Aug. 29 list.
“Forever” concurrently blasts onto the all-genre, multi-metric Billboard Hot 100 at No. 2, marking the highest debut ever for a song that has also appeared on Hot Country Songs by a solo male. It surpasses the No. 5 entrance of “Lost in You” by Garth Brooks’ alter ego Chris Gaines in September 1999.
Combs wrote his new leader with Drew Parker and Robert Williford. “‘Forever After All’ doesn’t happen without my wife, Nicole,” Combs tells Billboard. “This song is the next chapter in our story, but it’s awesome to see so many people are able to connect in the same way I feel about her in their own lives. And, it will always mean a lot to us because it’s the first song I wrote in our home together, but even more so now with the reaction from the fans.”
Combs adds of the song, which he first previewed on TikTok in late August, “I had been holding this song back for about two years, so I was really itching to get it out, but it was well worth the wait for me and I hope it was for the fans, too. I think this will be one we will enjoy for a long, long time.”
“Forever” awards Combs his third Hot Country Songs leader and first No. 1 debut. It follows “Beautiful Crazy,” which reigned for 11 weeks beginning in March 2019, and “When It Rains It Pours,” which led for two frames starting in November 2017.
“Forever” is among the new tracks included on the deluxe version of Combs’ second LP, What You See Is What You Get, which was reissued Oct. 23 (dubbed What You See Ain’t Always What You Get in its new 23-track deluxe form).
“Forever” banked 29.1 million U.S. streams in the week ending Oct. 29, according to Nielsen Music/MRC Data, and rockets in atop Country Streaming Songs, marking Combs’ third No. 1. It flies in at No. 2 on the all-genre Streaming Songs survey, where it’s his highest-charting hit. The song sold 52,000 downloads in the same frame and bounds in atop Country Digital Song Sales, marking Combs’ sixth No. 1. It also bows atop the all-genre Digital Song Sales tally as his first leader.
On Country Airplay, “Forever” starts at No. 56 with 762,000 audience impressions in the week ending Nov. 1. (Current promoted single “Better Together” bumps 21-17, up 29% to 11.3 million impressions.)
What You See Is What You Get holds atop the Top Country Albums chart for a 32nd week at No. 1, up 399 percent to 109,000 equivalent album units. It simultaneously soars back to the penthouse (21-1) on the all-genre Billboard 200 for a second week on top, after it debuted atop the list dated Nov. 23, 2019. Meanwhile, the set’s 102.3 million weekly streams for its songs breaks its own record for the largest streaming week for a country album. It first set the record in its debut week (74 million).
Further, with What You See Is What You Get crowning Top Country Albums and “Forever” dominating Hot Country Songs, Country Streaming Songs and Country Digital Song Sales, Combs is the first artist to rule four country rankings since Wallen led the same four lists dated Aug. 29.
Combs (2019) and Kane Brown (2017) are the only artists that have led all five country charts simultaneously, having added Country Airplay coronations to their sweeps.
via https://www.DMT.NEWS/
Jim Asker, Khareem Sudlow, DMTDaily
