A decade after releasing his first single, Shaboozey struck gold with “A Bar Song (Tipsy.)” In July, the song reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart, giving the 29-year-old genre-bending star his first-ever No. 1 hit. “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” remained the chart’s longest-standing No. 1 of 2024. Recently, Shaboozey sat down with CBS News’ Gayle King to discuss genre, J-Kwon, and his wildly successful year.
What He Thinks Was “Missing in Music”
Incorporating elements from J-Kwon’s 2004 smash hit “Tipsy,” “A Bar Song” centers around a fairly universal situation. Frustrated with work and other daily pressures, the narrator heads to a local bar and says, Someone pour me up a double shot of whiskey / They know me and Jack Daniels got a history.
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It’s familiar, yet also unique. “I think it’s just a song that really was missing in music,” Shaboozey told Gayle King during an interview aired Thursday (Nov. 7.) “Just something that really makes you feel, just happy.”
[RELATED: Exclusive: Shaboozey Talks “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” Almost Not Making the Album, His “Rocky Career” and Becoming a “Pillar of Music”]
Hitting No. 1 on the Billboard chart was nice, but Shaboozey knew he’d truly made it when J-Kwon sent him a DM with fire emojis after hearing “A Bar Song.”
“I was like, damn, J-Kwon hit me,” he said. “I think once I got that, I was like, ‘There’s definitely something special in this song.”
Does Shaboozey Believe in Genres?
Born Collins Obinna Chibueze in northern Virginia, Shaboozey blends hip-hop, country, rock and Americana for a truly infectious sound. And it’s that refusal to cram himself inside a box that resonates with so many fans.
“I think music is one of those things that was just like just a free expression, you know,” he told Gayle King.
Shaboozey’s “free expression” earned him two CMA Award nominations and a spot on Time’s 100 Next List. However, the People’s Choice Country Awards winner has remained humble, calling his journey “nothing short of a miracle.”
“My whole life has been about challenges, like not being accepted even in places where I’m supposed to be accepted,” he said. “I feel like I adapted to that. … I wanna be someone that people remember for doing something.”
Featured image by Brandon Nagy/Shutterstock
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