This Is the Best Country Song of 2021

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Jan 31, 8:30AM EST

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This Is the Best Country Song of 2021 — © Jason Kempin / Getty Images

The country music genre began to emerge in the 1920s and become more popular a short time later. Country music has among the best-selling singles and albums in America today, often hitting the Billboard Hot 100 list. The Garth Brooks “Double Live” album has sold 21 million copies since it was released in 1998.

Like most of the major American music genres, country music has its legendary singers. Hank Williams released some songs that are pillars of country music. He died in the back of a car, at age 29, on January 1, 1953.

To determine the best country song of 2021, 24/7 Tempo reviewed data from Billboard’s Hot Country Songs Year-End Chart for the year. Billboard’s rankings are based on radio airplay audience impressions, sales data and streaming activity, as compiled by Nielsen Music. Data on each song’s number of lifetime Spotify streams was collected on January 18, 2022.

It was a big year for the controversial Morgan Wallen, who placed several songs on the list of those we considered. He also released a 30-track album titled “Dangerous: The Double Album” that became only the fourth country album to top the Billboard 200 for a year.

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Luke Combs and Florida Georgia Line each landed three songs on the list we considered as solo performers and in collaboration with other artists. The latter continued country music’s genre-crossing success by pairing with rapper Nelly on the song “Lil Bit.” Country stalwarts Thomas Rhett and Chris Stapleton (five Grammy wins), meanwhile, each placed two songs on our finalist list.

Some artists skillfully used social media to promote their music. Walker Hayes’ tune “Fancy Like” went viral on TikTok and soared to the top on both Billboard’s Country Airplay and Hot Country Songs charts. It became a crossover hit when it reached number three on the Billboard Hot 100.

Lainey Wilson had a breakthrough year, with the number one single “Things A Man Oughta Know” from her debut album “Sayin’ What I’m Thinkin’.” Gabby Barrett has leveraged her appearance on “American Idol” in 2018 to build her career. Her debut album “Goldmine” in 2020 featured the catchy and ubiquitous hit “The Good Ones.” Performers like Niko Moon, himself a successful songwriter, released the hip-hop-influenced album “Good Time,” containing the hit single of the same name.

The best country music song of 2021 was “Forever After All.” Here are the details:

Artist: Luke Combs
Billboard Hot Country Songs peak position: No. 1
Total weeks on Hot Country Songs chart: 52
Lifetime Spotify plays: 210.6 million

Click here to see all the best country songs of 2021.
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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.