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Tenille Arts Makes History With Chart-Topper "Somebody Like That"

The song is the first country chart-topper produced, written and performed by an all-female team

For roughly a century, country music has existed, and seven decades have elapsed since Kitty Wells became the first woman to reach the top of the country charts with her groundbreaking 1952 hit "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels," which stayed atop the chart for six weeks. However, this week's Mediabase/Country Aircheck chart— with Tenille Arts' "Somebody Like That" on top—marks the first time in the genre's history that a female sang No. 1 hit was also written and produced by women, too.

"Somebody Like That" was written by Arts, Alex Kline, and Allison Veltz Cruz, and produced by Kline. The September 2019-released song first made history in January 2021 as the first track from a solo female producer performed by a female artist to reach the Top 15 on the country radio charts. Four months later, it's reached the top of the Mediabase/Country Aircheck chart.

Regarding the song, in February 2020, Arts told The Boot, "We were talking about getting away from [writing] breakup songs and wanting to write something positive that was uptempo and fun, but still had substance to it, and was still, you know, a really positive way of looking at love. So we just sat down and knocked this song out...I remember walking out thinking that it was really great, and I couldn't wait to share it with my team, and that it was a possibility for the next single."

Via Twitter, Arts added, "We started as collaborators, became friends, and now they're nothing less than family. There are no other people I feel as comfortable with in the creative process and to get to share this moment with them is a truly the greatest gift of all."

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