Keith Urban notches 20th #1

We have a new number one song this week. Granger Smith’s Backroad song dropped from the 2 spot all the way to #5. Coming in at #4 is Zac Brown Band’s Beautiful Drug. Up one spot from last week at #3 is Randy Houser with We Went. For the 2nd week at number 2 is Carrie Underwood’s Heartbeat. And Keith Urban takes to top spot with Break On Me. This is Keith’s 20th #1 single.

Grammy's fuel big sales spikes for Country artists.

It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to hear that winning a GRAMMY is about more than just taking home a trophy. Each year, artists who win, or even just perform, tend to see an increase in record sales, and that certainly goes for this year.  Chris Stapleton’s album Traveller is up 58%.  Sam Hunt’s performance with Carrie Underwood helped increase sales of his debut album Montevallo by 59%.  Carrie Underwood’s Storyteller album sales are up 46%, but the song she performed with Sam…”Heartbeat”…saw a 133% increase in downloads.  But listen to this…Little Big Town’s performance of “Girl Crush” translated into a 787% increase, putting the song at number one on the Country Digital Songs chart.  Plus their album Pain Killer saw a sales increase of 220%.

Granger Smith Makes It To #1

There is a new #1 on the mediabase chart this week. Coming in at #5 is Randy Houser with We Went. Carrie Underwood’s Heartbeat sits at # 4. Kelsea Ballerini’s Dibs moves up one spot to #3. Luke Bryan and Karen Fairchild moved back down to number-two with “Home Alone Tonight.” And Granger Smith’s debut single Backroad Song is #1. Backroad Song took 32 weeks to climb to the top of the charts and is Granger’s very first #1 song.

Chris Stapleton Dominates Album Sales Again

Chris Stapleton’s GRAMMY Album of the Year nominee “Traveller” continues to dominate the “Billboard” chart. The record is spending its 12th week at number one, with a total of 830,000 copies sold to date.  The number is pretty impressive considering when it was released back in May, “Traveller’ debuted at number two with only 27,000 copies sold.

Are Dustin Lynch and Kelsea Ballerini a Thing?

The rumor mill is cranking overtime after Dustin Lynch posted a photo on Twitter of him and Kelsea Ballerini with the caption, "I'm calling 'Dibs'" -- which is the name of Kelsea's single. There is no confirmation on whether the two friends were just being playful or have become romantically involved.

Dustin says he wants a woman who knows what she wants -- like the girl in his new single, "Mind Reader."

CRS-ing with @dustinlynchmusic

A photo posted by Kelsea Ballerini (@kelseaballerini) on Feb 9, 2016 at 11:02am PST

Country Will Battle It Out at the Grammy's

Several country stars will compete against each other at next week’s Grammy Awards.  The competition in the Best Solo Country Performance category is stiff.

Chris Stapleton is nominated for his song Traveller.

Carrie Underwood is also nominated for her song “Little Toy Guns”.

And Keith Urban is nominated for “John Cougar, John Deer, John 3:16”.

Other nominees include Cam for “Burning House” and Lee Ann Womack for “Chances Are”.  The Grammy Awards will be broadcast live on Monday, February 15th at 8 p.m. ET on CBS.

The Top 5

There was a little bit of movement within the Top 5 songs in country music this week.  Thomas Rhett drops to number-five with “Die a Happy Man”.  While Kelsea Ballerini continues to climb the charts.  Her song “Dibs” comes in at number-four this week.  Sam Hunt is still hanging out in the Top 5.  “Breakup in A Small Town” sits at number-three.  Granger Smith’s “Backroad Song” continues its climb.  It sits at number-two this week.  And for a second consecutive week, the number-one spot belongs to Luke Bryan and Karen Fairchild with their duet, “Home Alone Tonight”.