During the “craziest week of my life”, Weyburn’s own Tenille Arts saw her album hit gold record status, she won four awards from the Saskatchewan Country Music Association, and she was up for her first Academy of Country Music award, as her song, “Somebody Like That” was climbing the music charts heading for No. 1. The song reached No. 1 on the Mediabase country music charts on Sunday, overtaking Gabby Barrett’s song, “The Good Ones”.
Part of the milestone is being the first Canadian artist to hit No. 1 since 2007, and it's the first No. 1 song on country radio that was written, produced and sung by a female artist.
She held an Instagram Live chat on Tuesday evening, where she answered questions and comments from fans, and performed the song that is in the top five for country radio.
“I will cry for a month if this song goes No. 1,” she said, expressing her excitement at the possibility of this happening soon.
“I think the last time a Canadian artist had a No. 1 was around 2004,” said Tenille, who was asked what the story was behind writing this song.
She explained that she and co-writers Allison Cruz and Alex Kline wanted to get away from breakup songs.
“They kind of knew what I was going through. I had gone through a breakup, and I really wanted to write something hopeful for love. We talked about great relationships around us. Everyone knows relationships that you admire,” said the singer, adding that there are always going to be ups and downs in relationships.
“That’s the whole point, going through the ups and downs together. It’s a song about restarting and not settling until you find that perfect person,” she added.
Tenille pointed out the song was an all-female project, with producer Kline making history as the first solo female producer to have a song performed by a female reach the top 15 in country radio.
“I was hoping it could catch on. It’s so close, I’m losing it,” she said, laughing.
Tenille noted she first came to Nashville when she was 15, and moved to the city when she turned 21.
Asked what the first song was that she learned to play on guitar, she said it was a Taylor Swift song, noting she first learned how to play on an old guitar from her mom that may have had nylon strings on it.
She did a cover of a Swift song, “Fifteen”, and got a call from her manager as she was impressed with the cover.
“Taylor has been a part of my journey and I just love her,” said Tenille.
She will be having some new music coming out soon, she added, noting that her confidence in her songwriting has grown a lot with the success of “Somebody Like That”, even though she’s been writing under pandemic conditions.
“It was so fun to write on Zoom, and we recorded on Zoom. It was just really cool,” she said.
Asked about her night at the Academy of Country Music Awards, she noted this was her first red carpet experience, and said she loves the hair and makeup and getting all ready for a fancy event like that.
“Everything that’s happened to me this year has been because of country radio. This song is changing my life,” said Tenille.
