Belles & Dolly Parton’s ‘Son of Jolene’ Debuts on Billboard’s Country Airplay Chart
Plus, Luke Combs leads, and Lauren Alaina and Chase Matthew go top 10.
Singer-songwriter Belles and the late Dolly Parton’s “Son of Jolene” debuts at No. 51 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart (dated Sept. 12). The song drew 1.3 million in airplay audience, up 68% week over week, Aug. 28-Sept. 3, according to Luminate.
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Belles, who earns her first entry on the chart, cowrote the song with Tyler Bank and Dan Harrison as a sequel to Parton’s 1974 Hot Country Songs No. 1 classic, “Jolene.” The new song made its way to Parton through longtime producer Kent Wells, and the legend liked the concept enough to add her vocals.
“Son of Jolene” stands as Parton’s last new recording released during her lifetime.
“I don’t even know how to say ‘thank you’,” Belles said in a video posted to Instagram after Parton died Aug. 25. “I was just a girl from Nebraska growing up idolizing Dolly and I never imagined moving to Nashville that I would get to meet her, much less have this song with her. She just took a chance on me. She really made me believe in myself a lot more. I’m just very grateful.”
As Luke Combs’ “Be by You” tops Country Airplay for a third week (32.8 million, up 1%), Lauren Alaina’s “All My Exes,” featuring Chase Matthew, rises a spot to No. 10 (17 million, up 3%). Alaina adds her fourth top 10 and Matthew, his third.
Notably, three of Alaina’s top 10s are collaborations — fitting on a chart where team-ups are scarce but tend to overperform once they catch on. “All My Exes” joins her three one-week No. 1s: HARDY’s “One Beer,” on which she and Devin Dawson are featured (December 2020); Kane Brown’s “What Ifs,” another feature (October 2017); and her own “Road Less Traveled” (April 2017).
Matthew previously visited the top 10 with “Darlin’,” a three-week No. 1 last November, and “Love You Again,” his chart debut that reached No. 9 in 2024.
Alaina cowrote “All My Exes” with Jimmie Gutch, Ben Johnson and Whitney Phillips, born of an argument with a former partner. “I was 22, 23, living in Nashville and dating other country music artists and dating other people in the business, and comedians,” she explained in Billboard’s Makin’ Tracks last September. “All the wrong people, basically.”
All Billboard charts dated Sept. 12 will update Wednesday, Sept. 9, on Billboard.com.
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