Two weeks ago, he was unemployed and living in a camper with his three sheepdogs in Farmville, a small rural town in Virginia where, in 1865, General Lee led the Confederate army on a massacre three days before the end of the Civil War. Today Oliver Anthonyborn Christopher Anthony Lunsford, became the current singer in America thanks to the miracle “Rich men north of Richmond“, a country single released on August 8 on YouTube that eclipsed the likes of Taylor Swift on the charts this week, making Anthony the first new artist to top the Billboard Hot 100.
What does the text “Rich people north of Richmond” say?
“I sold my soul working all day, overtime for shitty pay.Anthony sings, blaming rich people north of Richmond (Congress and the White House) for oppressing people like him. I scream in despair which reflects the current situation in a torn and divided country. Also from this song. The feat of the 30-year-old artist, representative of the workers of working America, was announced by Republican politicians, on paper representatives of this white working class were increasingly refused and misled by the promises of Washington.
However, the success was completely unexpected, as the singer-songwriter admitted in a lengthy Facebook post. “I am in such a strange period in my life. I never wanted to be a regular musician, much less be at the top of the iTunes charts. Draven of RadioWv (the platform that first published this song, ed.) and I filmed these songs on my property in hopes of reaching 300,000 views. I still can’t believe what has happened since we uploaded this. it’s just weird for me“, He wrote.
Rich Men North of Richmond now has 32 million views on YouTube – an amazing number for a stranger who considers himself neither a good musician nor a good person and who has stated that he had a drinking problem in the past. “It makes me sad to see the world the way it is when everyone is arguing with each other. I have spent many hopeless nights feeling that the greatest country on Earth is rapidly disappearing.“, he confessed.
American politics through the eyes of Oliver Anthony
The Anthony phenomenon has grown, to say the least, ambiguously. He did not declare his party affiliation, but his traditionalist language, typical of modern american law. Someone suspects that behind the verse “I wish politicians dealt with miners, not just gods minors somewhere on the island“In addition to the explicit reference to pedophile Jeffrey Epstein and the attacks on Democrats and President Joe Biden in favor of closing mines in Appalachia, there is a veiled hint at conspiracy theories here. QAnon.
In any case, interest in the fate of their country seems sincere. “I don’t think our country will last more than another generation the way we live.“said the singer-songwriter in an interview with Fox News.”We need to go back to the roots of what made this country great, which is the sense of community. We are the melting pot of the world and our diversity makes us strong. We must learn to exploit it and appreciate it, and not use it as a political tool to keep everyone apart.“.
However, the lack of attacks from left. Billy Bragg, an English guitarist close to the positions of the British Labor Party, attacked Anthony in a scathing editorial published in The keeper. “Anthony really scolds the poor“, Bragg points out.”He complains that the lives of ordinary workers are being ruined by the rich, but he says that we can only solve the problem if we cut benefits and taxes.he finishes, researching an excerpt from Rich People North of Richmond in which Anthony sings against what he calls “obesity milking welfare“, that is, overweight people who receive financial assistance from the federal government.
Meanwhile it’s raining from the GOP praise towards the artist. The brash Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor-Green described wealthy men north of Richmond as “anthem of forgotten americawhile former Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake said she got goosebumps while listening to the song. What to do with alleged six-figure offers from record companies. The situation is now out of control of Anthony, who enjoys an impromptu fame associated, however, also with the exploitation of his music was written by those who, moreover, in his lyrics would be “rich people north of Richmond.”