It also rises 3-2 on Hot County Songs.
Gabby Barrett’s “I Hope” becomes the first debut single by a woman to top Billboard‘s Country Streaming Songs chart, as it rises from No. 4 to No. 1 on the survey dated April 11.
The song, which Barrett wrote with Zachary Kale and Jon Nite, ascends with a 7% increase to 9 million U.S. streams in the week ending April 2, according to Nielsen Music/MRC Data.
The track from the 2018 third-place American Idol finalist also enters the all-genre Streaming Songs chart at No. 41.
On the Hot Country Songs ranking, which blends streaming, airplay and sales data, “Hope” bumps 3-2 for a new high. It pushes 6-3 on Country Airplay, up by 10% to 30.1 million audience impressions, and sold 6,000 downloads in the tracking week.
In addition to landing the first Country Streaming Songs No. 1 by a female artist with a debut single (dating to the chart’s April 2013 inception), Barrett is the first woman to lead the list with a non-holiday track and no other billed artists in five years, since Miranda Lambert’s “Little Red Wagon” rolled in at No. 1 on the chart dated March 28, 2015.
Barrett is the first woman to rule Country Streaming Songs at all since Brenda Lee, whose 1958 classic “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” led for five weeks this past holiday season (and his spent 15 total weeks atop the tally).
Before Lee, the last female to reside in the Country Streaming Songs penthouse was Bebe Rexha, whose “Meant to Be,” with Florida Georgia Line, spent its record 55th week at No. 1 in February 2019.
