As Shaboozey’s A Bar Song (Tipsy) becomes one of the country’s most celebrated tracks in 2024, what made this tribute to good-time drinking resonate so much this year?

At the dawn of 2024, not many would have predicted that the biggest names in country music this year would be Jelly Roll, Post Malone, Beyoncé, and a 29-year-old US singer-rapper of Nigerian descent named Shaboozey.

Yet Shaboozey – born Collins Obinna Chibueze – is poised to end December with one of the most celebrated songs of the year. A Bar Song (Tipsy) not only became the longest-running number one song on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart in the publication’s 66-year history – a distinction tied only by Lil Nas X for Old Town Road in 2019, but at the time of writing, it also spent its 25th week atop Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart. Multiple Grammy nominations for the singer are also in play. Having a Billboard record tied by two black artists with country songs is significant, since black performers, until recently, have traditionally been underrepresented on the country charts.

Like Old Town Road, the domination of A Bar Song (Tipsy) is tied to its crossover appeal. The strummed acoustic guitar, ghostly whistling, and lively fiddle create a Spaghetti Western vibe that results in a chorus perfectly tailored for line dancers at the neighbourhood club: beat counting, handclaps and group vocals make it irresistible. But there’s also rap decadence lining the lyrics – Shaboozey’s weary vocals make it clear that the hour is late in clubland and the point of no return has arrived. “It’s last call and they kick us out the door/It’s getting kind of late but the ladies want some more,” he sings, followed by a pause and then the big hook: “Oh my, good Lord.”