Chris Young and Kane Brown Top 2021 Year End Radio Chart
"Famous Friends" is the biggest radio hit of the year.
A pair of true country buddies have landed on top of the year end country radio chart, with Chris Young and Kane Brown’s “Famous Friends” named Billboard’s most-played song of the year.
A lighthearted duet about the people who are a big deal in small towns all over the nation, the track will go down in history as 2021’s biggest country radio hit, and Young says that is a title he’s taking to the bank.
“It’s pretty incredible when you get to write/record/produce a song that not only makes people want to sing along with you at concerts, but also becomes the most played ‘Billboard’ country song of the entire year,” he says. “I couldn’t be any happier that ‘Famous Friends’ will go into the record books for this, and that I get to celebrate it alongside my buddy Kane Brown.”
Co-written by Young with Corey Crowder and Cary Barlowe, “Famous Friends” was released in late 2020 and also ended up becoming the title track to Young’s most recent album. It marked a reunion for the former tour pals who also collaborated on Brown’s 2017 track “Setting the Night On Fire,” and hit Number One in July of 2021, spending 15 weeks inside country radio’s Top 5 while Young and Brown teamed up to perform it at multiple awards shows.
In fact, “Famous Friends” ended up winning the CMT Music Award for Collaborative Video of the Year, and also landed near the top of other year-end Billboard charts like Number Five on Hot Country Songs, Number 39 on the all-genre Radio Songs and more.
Elsewhere, the year’s other overall champs include Morgan Wallen — who is not only the year’s top country artist overall, but also landed his Dangerous: The Double Album on top of the all-genre Billboard 200 albums chart — and Luke Combs, who’s “Forever After All” is on top of the Hot Country Songs chart (which combines streaming and radio play).
