Josh Ross hits first Country Airplay No. 1 as “Hate How You Look” jumps to the summit

Josh Ross just landed his first Billboard Country Airplay No. 1. “Hate How You Look” rises to the top spot as it reaches its 40th week on the chart dated July 4, after drawing 32.7 million audience impressions in the June 19-25 tracking window, up 4%.

Why that matters is simple: this is not a one-week miracle. Ross’ No. 1 is built on persistence. His prior Country Airplay entry, “Single Again,” peaked at No. 2 last summer in its 68th week, so the pattern here is slow-burn payoff, not instant ignition. In a world where teams often chase what moves quickest, the chart is effectively rewarding what kept getting picked up week after week.

On the chart, the handoff is also a classic country radio storyline: a long-running song finally gets displaced. “Hate How You Look” assumes the lead from Ella Langley’s “Be Her,” which descends to No. 3 after a four-week run at the summit. That sequence matters for stakeholders because it shows how top-of-chart stability can coexist with an eventual reset. Four straight weeks at No. 1 tells you radio already made a decision. Then the decision changes when another track proves it can keep growing across weeks, not just launch strong.

Ross is also the second artist this year to secure a first Country Airplay No. 1. The Billboard Country Airplay leaderboard lists 12 total leaders so far this year, which means first-time No. 1s are winning about 16.7% of the time among leaders. Tucker Wetmore’s “Brunette” was the prior first-timer at No. 1 in May, making Ross the next data point that fresh leaders still break through when the song has staying power.

If you are trying to calibrate what “staying power” looks like, Billboard’s own numbers provide a useful frame. There were three acts that earned career-first leaders in 2025, out of 20 No. 1s overall, which is 15%. Looking back, there were nine first-timers in 2024, out of 27 No. 1s (33.3%). Since the start of 2016, 54 artists have notched first No. 1s on the ranking, among 314 total leaders (17.2%). The implication for boards and marketing teams is that first-time leaders are not rare enough to ignore, but they are not guaranteed either. The distribution suggests that “breakthrough” is partly a timing game, partly a radio adoption game.

Ross is not alone in this update, and the adjacent chart behavior hints at how radio leadership can be contested. “Chevy Silverado” by Bailey Zimmerman moves from No. 11 to No. 9 in its 37th week, posting 17.8 million audience impressions, up 5%. It is his seventh Country Airplay top 10, following “Backup Plan,” which rose to No. 2 last September. Zimmerman’s top 10 average climb time is 25 weeks across his trips, which positions “Chevy Silverado” as one of his longer crawls. Only “Holy Smokes” took more time, at 44 weeks. Meanwhile, “Backup Plan” marked his fastest ascent, at 11 weeks. For strategy teams, those climb-time variations are a reminder that the same artist can produce different radio trajectories depending on the song and the competitive window.

The debut section adds more pressure to stay ready, because new arrivals keep the runway unpredictable. Cole Swindell’s “Girl Dad” opens at No. 26 on Country Airplay with 5.8 million audience impressions. Jelly Roll’s “Hands Up” enters at No. 28 with 5.6 million. Both acts boast eight and nine career No. 1s respectively, which means these are not “unknown quantities” in the industry sense. Even so, the chart treats them as fresh entrants into the weekly race, and that matters for anyone underwriting promotion budgets or planning follow-up releases.

All charts dated July 4 will update Tuesday, June 30, on Billboard.com, so the next turn is close enough to matter quickly. For executives and operators, the strategic stakes are the same every cycle: do you optimize for immediate traction, or do you build systems that can support songs that climb for months? Ross’ No. 1 suggests radio can reward patience when audience impressions keep rising and the track steadily earns its way to the summit.