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2017 in country music
...This is a list of notable events in country music that took place in 2017.
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Events
- April 3 – Luke Bryan's "Fast" reaches No. 1 on Country Airplay, making Bryan the first artist ever to achieve six No. 1 singles from the same album.[1]
- April 11 – Jeff Cook of Alabama announces he will stop touring with the band, after revealing he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease four years earlier.[2]
- April 23 – The Andrew Johnson Hotel in Knoxville, Tennessee, where Hank Williams stayed December 31, 1952, hours before his death, makes headlines after mayor Tim Burchett announces that Knox County would seek proposals to redevelop the building, sparking re-interest in the circumstances and events surrounding Williams' final hours.[3]
- May 4 – Loretta Lynn suffers a stroke at her Hurricane Mills, Tennessee ranch weeks after celebrating her 85th birthday at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee. Lynn is said to make a full recovery but postpones numerous shows.
- August – Taylor Swift sues and prevails in a civil trial against David Mueller, a former morning show personality for Denver's KYGO-FM, in connection with an incident in 2013 – when Swift was still touring and being billed as primarily a country music performer – where Swift accused Mueller of sexually assaulting her by groping her at an event. Mueller later sued Swift, accusing her of lying and causing him to be fired from his job at KYGO, but Swift countersued for sexual assault. During the trial, a jury rejects Mueller's claims and rules in favor of Swift.[4] In December, Swift, as a result of the 2013 incident and subsequent civil trial, is one of the "Silence Breakers" named Time's 2017 Person of the Year[5]
- August 12 – "Body Like a Back Road" by Sam Hunt breaks two Billboard Hot Country Songs chart records for No. 1 longevity within a month of each other. On July 22, upon spending its 22nd week at No. 1, "... Back Road" becomes the longest-running No. 1 song by a male solo artist since the start of the charts in 1944, bumping three songs that had been tied for first with 21 weeks: "I'll Hold You in My Heart (Till I Can Hold You in My Arms)" by Eddy Arnold (1947), "I'm Movin' On" by Hank Snow with the Rainbow Ranch Boys (1950), and "In the Jailhouse Now" by Webb Pierce (1955). On August 12, the song's 25th week at No. 1, Hunt bumps Florida Georgia Line's "Cruise" for lengthiest No. 1 run (previously 24 weeks) in chart history; the song eventually logs 34 weeks at No. 1, finally dropping from the top spot (to No. 2) on the chart dated October 21. The song's long-running popularity is attributed in part due to downloads and live streaming, and its No. 6 peak on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, all without a music video for the track.
- September 8 – Troy Gentry, half of the duo Montgomery Gentry, is killed in a helicopter crash in New Jersey.
- September 9 – The radio countdown program American Country Countdown returns to using the Billboard chart as its source after eight years of using the Mediabase chart. The Country Airplay chart is used.[6]
- September 29 - Shania Twain releases her first studio album in nearly 15 years, Now.
- October 1 – A mass shooting occurs at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival in Paradise, Nevada, during a closing performance by Jason Aldean. A shooter fired into the crowd from a 32nd-floor balcony of the Mandalay Bay hotel, located to the southeast of the Las Vegas Village outdoor concert venue. Initial reports indicated that more than 50 people had died and more than 400 were wounded, with those numbers expected to rise, and that the gunman was also dead. Aldean was able to escape uninjured and later posts social media messages confirming his safety.[7] Less than a week later, Aldean pays tribute to the victims and others impacted by the events in Las Vegas by appearing on Saturday Night Live, giving words of support before performing Tom Petty's "I Won't Back Down"; the tribute also honors Petty, who died the day after the shooting.[8]
- October 1 – Loretta Lynn returns to the stage after a near 5-month absence from the spotlight after suffering a stroke on May 4, at her Hurricane Mills, Tennessee Ranch. Lynn sung three of her hit songs at a concert at her ranch which include "Coal Miner’s Daughter," "You Ain’t Woman Enough" and "Dear Uncle Sam."
Top hits of the year
The following songs placed within the Top 20 on the Hot Country Songs, Country Airplay, or Canada Country charts in 2017: