|
|
Post by Admin on Apr 10, 2020 18:16:56 GMT
It also rises 3-2 on Hot County Songs.  Gabby Barrett's "I Hope" becomes the first debut single by a woman to top Billboard's Country Streaming Songs chart, as it rises from No. 4 to No. 1 on the survey dated April 11. The song, which Barrett wrote with Zachary Kale and Jon Nite, ascends with a 7% increase to 9 million U.S. streams in the week ending April 2, according to Nielsen Music/MRC Data. Gabby Barrett is taking her debut single, “I Hope,” to historic new heights on the Billboard Country Streaming Songs chart for the survey dated April 11, with her song rising from the number-four slot all the way up to the top. That’s big news, not just for Gabby, but for female artists everywhere: “I Hope” is the first debut single to top the chart since its inception in April of 2013, Billboard reports. In fact, it’s the first time that a woman has been at the number-one spot on the Country Streaming Songs Chart since the 2019 holiday season, when Brenda Lee ruled for five weeks with her 1958 classic, “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree.” Pop artist Bebe Rexha also enjoyed a lengthy, 55-week stay at the top spot, thanks to her massively popular collaboration with Florida Georgia Line, “Meant to Be.” That run wrapped in February of 2019. But setting aside collaborations and holiday hits, a female artist sitting at the top of the chart has been a much rarer occurrence: It last happened in 2015, when Miranda Lambert reigned with “Little Red Wagon.” Gabby’s chart-topping milestone comes with a 7% bump in streams of her single, notching a hefty nine million U.S. streams during the week ending April 2. "I Hope" is also on the rise elsewhere. It ascended from number three to number two on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, and from number six to number three on the Country Airplay chart. Gabby is also enjoying some success outside of the country format, entering the all-genre Streaming Songs chart in the 41st spot. T |
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Apr 11, 2020 2:23:01 GMT
At the age of 10, the Pennsylvania native heard “Rolling In the Deep” on a car radio in December 2010, just as the song was about to take off. Barrett was singing the chorus at home when her dad heard her voice and stopped her by the Christmas tree. “He said, ‘I want to video this,’” Barrett recalls. “He thought there was something there.”  A year later, Barrett played her first show in Munhall, a suburb of Pittsburgh, to a crowd of 50 people, a majority of whom were family and friends. Though she had been singing in her church choir, that show proved to Barrett herself that her dad’s instincts were right. Over the next six years, Barrett performed just about anywhere she could — restaurants, malls, even grocery stores — as long as it was within driving distance, as her parents insisted she stay in school. “We could only miss up to 29 [school] days a year,” she says, adding with a laugh, “and I missed 29 days every single year.” As one of eight children, Barrett says money was also a limitation. She remembers once having the power pulled on her house, and often having to pack lunches for road trips to shows because they couldn’t afford to stop and eat. But nothing held Barrett back from continuing the grind: she averaged 150 shows a year, with the simple goal of making her name known. At 14, Barrett expanded to songwriting, penning a teen-spirit tune called “Young Blood” that she performed live on air on local station FROGGY 104.3's The Danger Show a few times. But her focus remained on performance. “I was a terrible writer at first,” she says. “I really respected women that could sing their tails off and entertain really well, so I wanted to get that across before I brought any of my own music into it.” |
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Apr 11, 2020 18:09:25 GMT
Now 20, Barrett may already have her very own signature hit with “I Hope,” a breakup song in which a scorned woman wishes that her ex’s new girlfriend serves him some karma. The song’s slow-burning electric guitar and swirling production highlight Barrett’s smoky tone, with its dynamic chorus showcasing her vocal power. The singer wrote the track with rising Nashville songwriter Zachary Kale (Florida Georgia Line) and country hitmaker Jon Nite (Keith Urban) on Halloween in 2018, about six months after she’d placed third on Season 16 of American Idol.
Barrett was scouted for the show via email in late 2017 (“At first I was like, ‘This has to be spam,’” she remembers with a laugh). After a successful run — during which judge Luke Bryan proclaimed she’d “take this base and grow with it far beyond this competition” — Barrett thought she’d easily land a record deal upon the show’s end, and was quickly proven wrong. She approached every label in town, but none were interested, because they didn't think she had the songwriting skills to back up her TV credentials.
Barrett released “I Hope” independently in January 2019, and the song gradually gained traction thanks in part to early placement by iTunes and SiriusXM; by April, labels were knocking on her door. She performed acoustically for a few Nashville imprints, but Warner Music Nashville stuck out after chairman/CEO John Esposito declared she had to be a Warner artist. “He said, ‘I’ve never been this adamant with anyone except one other group,’” she recalls. That other group was Grammy-winning duo Dan + Shay.
Upon signing Barrett in May last year, Warner immediately put her on a radio tour to maintain the song’s momentum, a move in line with what Barrett had emphasized in all of her meetings: “I needed a label that was invested in this like I’m invested in this.” Eleven months later, “I Hope” has reached No. 3 on the Country Airplay chart (dated April 11). Barrett and labelmate Ingrid Andress have made history as the first two women to land their solo debut hits in the tally’s top 10 simultaneously (Andress’ “More Hearts Than Mine” is No. 5 on the April 11-dated chart).
Though she’s the youngest artist in the top 10 of both Country Airplay and Hot Country Songs (she's No. 2 on the April 11-dated chart), Barrett insists that her age hasn’t impacted any of her opportunities thus far — after all, she is already nine years into her career. And with her debut set on the way later this year (which she teases will have some “cool collaborations,” genre-bending songs and country super-producer Ross Copperman at the helm), Barrett says, “I’m just glad to be making some noise.”
|
|
