Billboard Names Bebe Rexha & Florida Georgia Line’s “Meant To Be” As The No. 1 Country Song Of 21st Century… & The Only Good News Is We Have 75 Years To Fix It

Did anyone else just throw up a little bit? Or is it just me?

I was having a great day until I laid my eyes upon Billboard’s Top Hot Country Songs of the 21st Century chart earlier this morning. Listicals are sometimes meant to get a rise out of people, and I’m here to say that it most definitely worked on me. Billboard knew exactly what they were doing when they put this 100-song ranking out.

And labeled “Meant To Be” by Bebe Rexha and Florida Georgia Line as the No. 1 hot country song of the 21st century.

Now to be clear, this list was put together solely based on the performance of Billboard’s weekly Hot Country Songs chart. They looked at the rankings from 2000 all the way to the end of 2024, and then just ran the numbers to see which songs fell where. Technically, there’s no doubt about the success of “Meant To Be.”

My only concern with its ranking is… are we sure it’s even a country song?

Unfortunately, the “Bro Country” movement occupies much of the Hot Country list, which is a testament to just how dominant it was when FGL was in the commercial prime of their career. That’s also why the sound has been so hard to shake off since its inception, but I think country music is know moving in the right direction in 2025

And on the plus side, we’re only 25 years into the 21st century, so there’s still plenty of time for this list to correct itself… and I sure hope it does. Though it might seem like the sky is falling with “Meant To Be” at the top spot, the rest of the list doesn’t get much better.

While we’re at it, I suppose I can go ahead and include the Top 10 list of Country Songs of the 21st century (according to Billboard), which is admittedly atrocious. Besides a couple of contenders from Morgan Wallen, I don’t see a legitimate country music artist in sight on this list:

10. “The Bones” by Maren Morris

9. “Last Night” by Morgan Wallen

8. “Wasted On You” by Morgan Wallen

7. “You Proof” by Morgan Wallen

6. “Fancy Like” by Walker Hayes

5. “Tequila” by Dan + Shay

4. “I Hope” by Gabby Barrett

3. “Cruise” by Florida Georgia Line

2. “Body Like A Backroad” by Sam Hunt

1. “Meant To Be” by Bebe Rexha & Florida Georgia Line

Are we sure that Billboard didn’t reference the wrong list? Or perhaps forget what country music actually is?

Obviously, since the rankings are solely based on “country song” performance, Billboard can’t be entirely to blame with having an almost full-on “Bro Country” takeover with the Top 10 Hot Country Songs of the 21st Century chart. I suppose we music fans have to shoulder some of the weight. Billboard was just reporting the numbers.

Still though… “Fancy Like” by Walker Hayes at No. 6? “Tequila” by Dan + Shay a spot ahead at No. 5? It almost feels like a satirical list when you think of actual, quality, genuine country music. God help us all as we move through the rest of the 21st century, and let’s hope that some other, actual country songs come along to dethrone some of this Top 10 list.The post Billboard Names Bebe Rexha & Florida Georgia Line’s “Meant To Be” As The No. 1 Country Song Of 21st Century… & The Only Good News Is We Have 75 Years To Fix It first appeared on Whiskey Riff.