Photo credit: David Bergman
Country superstar Luke Combs’ hit “Beautiful Crazy” is the sixth country song in history to be certified Diamond by the RIAA.
Sony Music Nashville opened CMA Fest by presenting Luke Combs, the current CMA Entertainer of the Year, and songwriter Rob Williford with a plaque commemorating Combs’ RIAA Diamond-rated single “Beautiful Crazy.” The track is only the sixth country song in RIAA history to sell more than 10 million copies.
The plaque was presented by Combs at the CMA Fest Bootleggers Fan Club Party on Thursday, June 8th. Notable Sony Music Nashville employees pictured along with Combs and Rob Williford include Caryl Atwood (SVP, Commercial Partnerships), Ken Robold (EVP & COO), Steve Hodges (EVP, Promotion & Artist Development), Taylor Lindsey (SVP, A&R) and Randy Goodman (Chairman and CEO) and Liz Cost (VP, Marketing).
While the performance is undeniably impressive, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Luke Combs was able to pull it off. The National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) revealed that the top songwriters of the first quarter of this year are overwhelmingly country-oriented, thanks largely to the success of Luke Combs.
Luke Combs has been recognized with 26 Best Artist and Songwriter awards including 9x Multi-Platinum for “Beautiful Crazy”, 8x Multi-Platinum for “Hurricane” and 4x Multi-Platinum for “Forever After All”. Big Machine released these hits, although Universal Music Publishing Group now serves as Combs’ publisher.
“Man, kind of speechless to be honest,” says Combs of his award for best songwriter. “All thanks go to my fans. They buy and stream the songs and albums, so none of this happens without them. Honestly, this is an award that should have their names on it. A big thank you to them and everyone else who made this possible.”
The top highest-performing songwriter for the first quarter was Ray Fulcher, who received 12 certifications for songs including “Does to Me,” “Reasons,” and “When It Rains It Pours,” which are released by Sony Music Publishing. Ray Fulcher is published through UMPG and River House/Sony Music Publishing.