MATT STELL: “Prayed For You” Becomes First No. 1 Debut Single on Billboard Country Airplay Chart in 2019 (Audio)
I first learned that “Prayed For You” was #1 on the road back from touring, we’re out with Chris Young. I got several phone calls, emails, and texts from the manager, label, and things like that letting me know that indeed it looked like that, barring something crazy happening, that we were going to have the #1 song in the country.
Matt Stell shares on the best part of “Prayed For You” achieving No. 1:
The best part about it is getting to celebrate it with a lot of people that are very involved in it. It does not happen without a great team around you, so it’s celebrating a team win, so that’s the best part.
I’m going to celebrate my #1, I have a couple surprises up my sleeve. But I’m going to spend just a little bit of money, and probably not on myself. I’m going to get to do some things for some people that I’ve always wanted to, so I’m excited about that.
Singer/songwriter Matt Stell achieves his first No. 1 on Billboard‘s Country Airplay chart with his debut single, “Prayed for You” (Wide Open/RECORDS/Good Company/Arista Nashville), marking the only debut single from an artist to hit the summit on Country Airplay in 2019. Stell breaks the longest dry spell between debut No. 1s since 2014; Jimmie Allen’s “Best Shot” went No. 1 on Nov. 24, 2018.
Penned by Stell, Ash Bowers (also Stell’s manager) and Allison Veltz, “Prayed For You” leaps from No. 8 to No. 4 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, its highest position to date. The song has amassed 99 Million streams and was certified Gold by the RIAA last month.
“It’s hard to believe that ‘Prayed for You’ is Billboard’s No. 1 country song in the U.S. this week,” exclaimed Matt Stell upon hearing the news. “I won’t be able to ever thank my fellow writers, Ash Bowers and Allison Veltz, and my RECORDS/Arista Nashville/Wide Open/GCE team enough.”
ABOUT MATT STELL: After playing college basketball for Drury University for four years, breakthrough country artist Matt Stell stood at a crossroads. One road led to Cambridge, MA where Stell was accepted into Harvard University’s Extension School Pre-Med program. The other road pointed toward Nashville and a career in country music. Stell made the choice to follow his dreams of writing and performing. The 6’7” Center Ridge, Ark. native and self-taught vocalist and guitar-player made the move to Music City in 2014, landing a publishing and management deal with Wide Open Music and a record deal with music industry powerhouse Barry Weiss’s RECORDS/Arista Nashville. Stell made his primetime TV debut performing the song during a special episode of ABC’s summer reality series “Bachelor in Paradise.” The CMT Discovery Artist and Taste of Country Ones To Watch artist’s official music video for “Prayed For You” premiered via People, has racked up over 10 million views. “Prayed For You” along with “Home In A Hometown,” a collaboration with Jimmie Allen, can be found on Stell’s EP, Everywhere But On. Catch Stell when he appears on Chris Young’s “Raised On Country World Tour 2019” for multiple arena and amphitheater dates through Nov. 23. Learn more at mattstell.com, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube @MattStellMusic.