Warner Chappell Music has signed a global publishing deal with GRAMMY-nominated country singer/songwriter Zach Bryan. Crowned Billboard’s Top New Country Artist of 2022, his RIAA multi-platinum certified smash hit “Something in the Orange” is the first song penned by a single writer since Taylor Swift’s “Love Story (Taylor’s Version)” to top the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart and is also his first track to reach the top 10 on the Hot 100.In addition, he recently broke the record for most weeks spent at No. 1 on Billboard’s Country Songwriters chart.
On signing with Warner Chappell Music, Zach Bryan shared: “I’d like to personally thank David and the team over at Warner Chappell. I was just a confused kid in the Navy four years ago and they were the first people I talked to in the industry, literally. They never pushed a four-man writing team on me, they never asked me to do anything I didn’t want to do, they just believed in me. I owe them more than just support, I owe them back the faith they had in me as a barely 23-year-old Oklahoma kid walking around New York like a sore thumb.”
WCM Head of A&R, Australia and Vice President, Creative, David Goldsen said: “Zach is a truly generational songwriter and that was obvious from the first time I heard his music. Those songs then, along with countless more since, resonate with everyone who hears them. He’s a natural storyteller with an innate ability to write songs that are unapologetically raw and vulnerable. In a short amount of time, he’s captivated fans of all music, and we’re beyond lucky and thrilled to work with him.”
In 2022, the breakthrough artist’s first studio album American Heartbreak debuted atop Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart and hit No. 5 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart—marking the biggest first week for a country album last year. With more than one billion global streams, he also holds the record for the Most-Streamed Country Album in a Single Day in 2022 on Spotify and Apple Music.
WCM President, North America, Ryan Press added: “Zach has already had a record-breaking start to his career and there’s so much more to come. He isn’t afraid to do things differently, and it’s been incredible to see him become such a positive force in the industry and reshape how singer/songwriters release music. This is a huge moment, and we’re very proud to be on this journey together as he continues to carve out his own path.”
An Oklahoma-native and Navy veteran, Zach Bryan rose to prominence in 2019 when a video of him singing his soulful song “Heading South” by a campfire went viral. The track, which is now RIAA platinum-certified, has amassed more than 19 million views. Later that year, Bryan released his debut album DeAnn, followed by his second album, Elisabeth in 2020. He went on to sign to Warner Records—WCM’s sister label—in 2021 and was honorably discharged from the Navy to focus on his music career full-time. In May 2022, Bryan released his major-label debut, American Heartbreak, and embarked on a massive U.S. tour with multiple sold-out shows–including the Rapides Parish Coliseum in Louisiana, which was the first sold-out show since Elvis performed in 1977. Following his record-breaking debut, Bryan released the nine-track EP Summertime Blues, which debuted in the top 10 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart. He closed out 2022 by dropping a surprise 24-track live album, All My Homies Hate Ticketmaster on Christmas Day, which was recorded just seven weeks earlier at his sold-out show at Colorado’s Red Rocks Amphitheater and topped the Apple Music Country chart. He also appeared on the fifth season of Kevin Costner’s blockbuster Yellowstone series.
Bryan will be kicking off his Burn Burn Burn tour in May in addition to headlining major music festivals this summer, including Windy City Smokeout and Rock The South. He recently teamed up with Maggie Rogers on the single “Dawns,” and is working on his next album, Writers and Fighters.
