Last summer country music artist Dustin Lynch found his duet partner, MacKenzie Porter, through a blind audition process. Lynch was searching for the perfect female singer to join him on his song, “Thinking ‘Bout You” and it turns out he made the right choice with the up-and-coming artist.
Almost hitting the one-year anniversary mark of its release, these artists are still seeing their work climb the charts and get plenty of love from fans. Sitting at No. 1 for six weeks, Lynch and Porter set a record over Jason Aldean with “Thinking ‘Bout You.”
“As the song started climbing, we were able to go out and play some shows, both [MacKenzie Porter] and I, and get to feel the familiarity come across the crowd each night and enjoy that,” Lynch said during an interview on Today’s Country Radio with Kelleigh Bannen on Apple Music Country.
Lynch continued, “But you can’t plan six weeks at number one. You can’t plan a song to have success like that. It set a record for my career. It set a record for my record label [Broken Bow Records], which is a feat that I can’t even believe. Jason Aldean is my label-mate, so it’s kind of nice to have one on the old man now… We’re really good buds, and we’re fans of each other. I just like that now I’ve got, finally, I’ve got one on him that he gets to try to beat.”
As he saw the numbers continue to rise, Lynch realized that “Thinking ‘Bout You” was going to be different from his previous releases. It turned out to be such a special song for both him and Porter, who got to see her name attached to a single on the charts in the US for the very first time.
“We had indicators really early on that it was going to be a faster-rising single than [normal], just because of how it was being consumed online,” Lynch explained. “What was fun about this whole process was MacKenzie has never had a single on the charts in the States, so she’s texting me like, ‘Hey, my team is telling me this is kind of cool and this is a good sign.’ I’m like, ‘MacKenzie, this is not normal. This is about to be mega.’ So we got to see the signs early on and then just enjoy the ride.
At the start of the new year, these duet partners surpassed multi-platinum artist Luke Combs’ heartfelt song “Forever After All.” Combs’ heartfelt ballad was the last single to spend five weeks or more on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart before “Thinking ‘Bout You” overtook its spot at six weeks in the leading spot. Lynch also saw his song top Combs’ 2019 record for “Beautiful Crazy,” which spent four weeks at No. 1.
In addition to all the excitement of a successful track, Lynch had two major announcements this month that launched his career into the next chapter.
Lynch revealed that he will be going on his debut headlining tour, dubbed the Party Mode Tour, beginning on March 17 and he’s bringing tracks, including “Thinking ‘Bout You,” from his recent fifth studio album, Blue in the Sky, with him on the road.
