Here Are Country Music’s Top 10 Streaming Songs of 2021
Just five country artists held the Top 10 spots on Billboard's list of most-streamed country songs in 2021, with all but one of those artists landing multiple songs on the list. They were an assembly of country radio's usual suspects, with one surprise wildcard thrown in, as well as one artist who had massive streaming success despite being benched by country radio early in the year.
Chris Stapleton landed two songs — from two different albums — within the Top 5 in 2021. One, "Starting Over," is from his new album of the same name, while the other is his perennial hit of six years' standing, "Tennessee Whiskey." Gabby Barrett, the lone female artist in the Top 10, also nabbed two spots, while Luke Combs placed a whopping three songs on the list.
Two of Combs' top streaming songs — "Forever After All" and "Better Together" — also enjoyed crossover success with Billboard's Top 10 country radio airplay singles of 2021, but another country superstar, Morgan Wallen, was conspicuously absent from that list. That's because Wallen was removed from many country radio playlists back in February after video footage emerged showing him using a racist slur. Fallout for Walllen was swift after that incident; he was also excluded from many of the top awards shows in 2021, he was suspended by his label and dropped by his booking agent and the singer stepped away from the limelight, asking fans to stop defending him and saying he wouldn't be touring that year.
Even without industry support, his January project, Dangerous: The Double Album, was a record-breaking success, and the year-end list for streaming songs is a testament to the fact that support for Wallen amongst his fanbase never really cooled. He placed two tracks in the Top 10: "Wasted on You" and "Whiskey Glasses," the latter of which is an older track from his major-label debut, If I Know Me.
The only act to land just one song in the Top 10 year-end list of most-streamed songs for 2021 is Walker Hayes, who cruises into the No. 6 spot with his grassroots success story, "Fancy Like." Propelled by a viral TikTok dance, the song crested to impressive new heights in 2021, bringing Hayes into the country mainstream after he spent years toiling on its fringes. But who had the No. 1 most-streamed song of 2021? Read on to find out!