“We’re not buddies”
Country star Anthony separates himself from Republicans
8/26/2023 3:24 am
The musical high-flyer Oliver Anthony does not want to be the figurehead of the right in the United States. Because his class struggle ballad “Rich Men North of Richmond” was too well received by Republicans, the country star distanced himself in a YouTube video.
The US musician Oliver Anthony, whose country song “Rich Men North of Richmond” surprisingly stormed the US charts last week, has defended himself against being co-opted by Republican politicians. It was “annoying” to see people trying to identify with him during appearances “on conservative news channels,” “as if I were one of them,” Anthony said in one Youtube video.
“It’s annoying when certain musicians and politicians act like we’re buddies and like we’re fighting the same fight, like we’re trying to convey the same message,” the musician said in the more than 10-minute video. The singer also poked fun at the fact that his song was played at the beginning of this week’s first televised debate of the US Republican presidential nominees. “I wrote the song about these people. The fact that the Republican candidates have to sit and listen to that makes me laugh,” he says. The only thing that bothered him about the surprising vertical start of his play was how it was mixed with politics.
According to industry service Billboard, Anthony’s song has been streamed 17.5 million times and downloaded 147,000 times in less than a week. The hitherto relatively unknown singer overtook megastars Taylor Swift, Morgan Wallen and Olivia Rodrigo in the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. Such an entry has not yet been successful, explained Billboard.
South left behind by the political elite
The play addresses the class struggle in the USA. In it, the musician denounces hard work, low wages and high taxes and sings about a worker who “sells his soul”. Anthony seems to strike a chord with his track: Rich Men North of Richmond, which debuted on YouTube on August 11, garnered millions of views across online services and quickly topped the Apple Country charts.
Richmond is the capital of the US state of Virginia and is a few hours’ drive south of Washington. The song’s title alludes to the fact that people in the south and in rural regions often feel left behind by the political elite.
The debate in Milwaukee in the northern state of Wisconsin on Wednesday was attended by politicians such as New Jersey’s former governor Chris Christie, former UN ambassador Nikki Haley, Florida’s governor Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence, Senator Tim Scott and North Dakota’s governor Doug Burgum , Arizona’s former governor Asa Hutchinson and young biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who surprisingly rose to third place in the polls.