Nate Smith’s “World on Fire” dominates Billboard’s Country Airplay survey (dated Jan. 20) for a fifth consecutive and total week. In the Jan. 5-11 tracking week, it advanced by 6% to 35.9 million audience impressions, according to Luminate.
Smith co-authored the song with Ashley Gorley, Taylor Phillips and Lindsay Rimes, the lattermost of whom solely produced it.
The single is the second straight career-opening Country Airplay leader for Smith, who first ruled with “Whiskey on You” for two weeks last February. Both are on the deluxe edition of his debut self-titled LP. The set arrived at its No. 6 high on Top Country Albums last May and has earned 683,000 equivalent album units to date.
Smith, who hails from Paradise, Calif., scored early success on social media prior to signing to Sony Music Nashville’s Arista roster in November 2021. He boasts 1.6 million TikTok followers.
When “World on Fire” first topped Country Airplay, Smith told Billboard, “If you would’ve told me in 2018 that right now I’d be celebrating not my first but my second No. 1 at country radio, I wouldn’t have believed it.”
Sitting ‘Pretty’
Warren Zeiders’ freshman Country Airplay entry, “Pretty Little Poison,” adds a third straight week at its No. 10 high. The first top 10 for the 24-year-old Zeiders, from Hershey, Penn., increased by 7% to 19 million in reach in the tracking week.
Happy Birthday
The Jan. 20-dated Country Airplay chart marks the 34th anniversary of the survey, which became Billboard’s first radio ranking based on electronically monitored data in the Jan. 20, 1990, issue. Clint Black’s “Nobody’s Home” became the chart’s first of 932 No. 1s to date.