A rising country star is performing in Utah — for free

Downtown Salt Lake is going all out for the highly-anticipated Utah Hockey Club home opener — including by arranging for a concert from a rising country music star who has had a No. 1 hit going on 13 weeks now.
Hockey fans will be treated to a free concert from Shaboozey outside of the Delta Center on Tuesday, a few hours before the Utah HC takes on the Chicago Blackhawks, as the Deseret News previously reported.
The show comes as Shaboozey enjoys the longest No. 1 hit of the year (so far) and the third longest this decade, according to Billboard.
The success of “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” makes Shaboozey, a Nigerian-American rapper and singer from Virginia, a likely Grammy nominee for best new artist and record of the year, per Variety.
Shaboozey is up for best new artist at the Country Music Association Awards next month.
“A Bar Song (Tipsy)” is the biggest country hit of the 2020s, recently surpassing Morgan Wallen’s “Last Night.”
Shaboozey’s free concert takes place at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, and parts of it will be featured on the ESPN broadcast of the Utah Hockey Club’s season-opening coverage, the Deseret News reported.
It’s been a breakthrough year for Shaboozey. The 29-year-old artist, who is the child of Nigerian immigrants, created his stage name following his high school football coach’s misspelling of his actual name, Collins Chibueze, per Billboard.
Shaboozey gained significant traction when his blend of hip-hop and country was featured on Beyonce’s debut country album, “Cowboy Carter,” earlier this year, according to NPR.
Beyonce featured Shaboozey on two tracks — “Sweet*Honey*Buckiin’” and “Spaghettii,” which also featured Linda Martell, the first commercially successful Black female country music artist who is hailed as the “unsung hero” of the genre, per Martell’s website.
But Shaboozey’s recent success comes a few years after the artist entered the industry. “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” stems from his third studio album, “Where I’ve Been, Isn’t Where I’m Going.” The singer-songwriter released his first single, “Jeff Gordon,” in 2014, and his debut album in 2018.
Shaboozey was also featured in “Start a Riot,” a song from the “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” soundtrack.
“I’ve been doing music for such a long time, I’ve put a lot of time and years into it,” Shaboozey told People. “I put so much into it that I feel like it’s just cool to see it working. Everybody hopes it works. To see it actually working, it’s unreal.”
Now, Shaboozey is at the top of the charts and in consideration for some major awards that could help continue the momentum in his career.
“This is the peak of the mountain as far as recognition comes,” Shaboozey told Billboard about his potential Grammy wins. “This is a longstanding ceremony, it’s history and tradition, and hopefully we’re able to take it home. That childhood fear of never winning anything is still there. It would mean the world to win one of these things, but if not, the year we had was crazy. If not now, it’ll come. We in the club now.”