NMPA Gold & Platinum Program Announces Top Country Songs and Songwriters for 2020 – 2021
WASHINGTON, D.C. –The NMPA Gold & Platinum Program, which honors the songwriters of RIAA-certified Gold, Platinum and Multi-Platinum singles, today announced the top country songs and songwriters for the past year. In lieu of the annual Gold & Platinum Gala in Nashville, the honorees were notified and received their awards remotely. The eligibility period was July 1, 2020, to June 30, 2021.
Based on a calculation of streams and sales, the “Platinum Anthem” or most listened to song in the past year went to Be Like That, which was certified Platinum and was performed by Kane Brown ft. Swae Lee & Khalid. The song was written by Kane Brown (Sony Music Publishing), Khalid (Sony Music Publishing), Mike WiLL Made-It (Warner Chappell), Eskeerdo (BMG), Swae Lee (Warner Chappell) and Charlie Handsome (Sony Music Publishing).
The Top Non-Performing Female Songwriter was Hillary Lindsey (Concord) with 14 certifications including hits like Hole in the Bottle, Church Bells, Hide the Wine, One Beer and What She Wants Tonight.
The Top Non-Performing Male Songwriter was Ashley Gorley (Round Hill / Tape Room Music) with 24 certifications for songs including Kick the Dust Up, What’s Your Country Song, Eyes on You, Good Girl and Born to Love You.
The Top Female Artist-Songwriter was Gabby Barrett (Sony Music Publishing) with five certifications for I Hope and The Good Ones.
The Top Male Artist-Songwriter was Chris Stapleton (Warner Chappell) with 16 certifications accumulated by songs including Broken Halos, Come Back Song, Starting Over, Parachute and Your Man.
The ”Top Song” or most listened-to song released prior to the past year went to Wagon Wheel performed by Darius Rucker and written by Bob Dylan (UMPG). The song went 9x Multi-Platinum.
NMPA President & CEO David Israelite congratulated the honorees saying, “This lineup represents some of the most innovative minds in music. These songwriters crafted the soundtracks to yet another challenging year, where music was more important than ever. While we hope this is the last year we will be forced to forego our in-person gala, we want to make sure these achievements are recognized and celebrated. To these songwriters, thank you for your commitment to making incredible music.”
About the NMPA G&P Program:
NMPA’s Gold & Platinum Program, in partnership with RIAA’s Gold & Platinum Program, identifies and honors the songwriters behind today’s biggest hits. NMPA confirms songwriters with their music publishers to ensure all appropriate songwriters are recognized for their contribution to an RIAA certified single. Certifications count both sales and on-demand streams towards gold (500K), platinum (1M) and multi-platinum (2M+) thresholds. Thousands of songwriters have been certified since NMPA’s program began in 2007. For more information and to view our Gold & Platinum database, visit www.nmpa.org/gp-program.
###