"I Hold On" Holds on For #1!

On Monday, March 24th, "I Hold On" became Dierks Bentley's 11th chart-topper, reaching the summit on both the Mediabase/Aircheck and Billboard Airplay charts. It was, to some, a sweet victory after radio essentially rejected "Bourbon in Kentucky" last year, but that didn't make the climb to the top any easier while it was happening. After 31 long weeks, it finally made it to the top. Woohoo!

I was a bit surprised he snagged the #1 this week, since Blake Shelton's "Doin' What She Likes" was sitting pretty at #1 up until Thursday morning. Apparently Dierks calling to request "I Hold On" on the Bobby Bones Show multiple times - and Bobby kindly playing it - did the trick! As it was, Dierks *just* squeaked ahead and finished a mere 141,000 in audience ahead of Blake on Billboard. Whew, that was close! (No worries, Blake fans - he'll be at #1 this coming week.)

"I Hold On" isn't quite done yet - in sales, that is. After his televised performance during January's Orange Bowl, the sales picked up big time, and the song is just a mere week or two away from hitting 500,000 in sales and GOLD certification. Woohoo, again!

As we all know, this is a hugely personal song for Dierks, and we all knew that the song going to #1 would be a moment filled with immense pride. Sure enough, Dierks tweeted the following on Monday morning:

thank YOU for calling/tweeting Country Radio. I Hold On is the number 1 song in the country today! this one means more to me than any other.

Later on Monday, he posted the following message for his fans (see video below).

Congratulations, Dierks! We know your Dad is smiling in Heaven!

Now we just wait to see what the next single will be. Any ideas, Congress? We should know within the next two weeks... and hopefully this single won't take 31 weeks to make it to the top! ;)

~ Carrie Srebro
DBC Rep/Chart Reporter ~ NC:

Post by Dierks Bentley.