This Heart

"What makes the highs higher is going through the lows and knowing the exact opposite. It was 2021 that was probably the worst year financially. We had to sell our house to keep paying the band and keep the dream alive. I worked at a pavement company in Dallas Texas and I was playing at a Mexican restaurant for free Mexican food."

(Corey Kent / bigdandbubba, Februar 2025)

Every year in February, the radio industry meets at the Country Radio Seminar in Nashville, where they discuss trends and developments and exchange ideas during themed presentations. In 2025, the agenda included topics such as streaming, social media, and the definition of commercial country music. But also an attempt to rethink the life cycle of a radio hit. Because, as Travis Daily of the radio company Cumulus rightly pointed out: "It shouldn’t take a year for a good song to get to No. 1 [on the radio chart]. People get bored easy, it's dumb."

Corey Kent released a first snippet of a new song titled 'This Heart' on his TikTok in August of 2023. However, since the focus at the time was still on his second single, 'Something's Gonna Kill Me', fans had to wait until January 26, 2024 , for the official release of the song's full version. By then, it had already garnered several million views on TikTok .

While the song's lyrics about a failed relationship don't address the reasons for it, the song's video, released the same day, adds this element. In a stirring way, perfectly fitting the song's driving sound, it depicts a relationship failing due to alcohol and depression.

Damn this heart and everything that comes with it,
damn this missin' you every night feelin',
I'd rip it out, girl, if I didn't need it,
if you're gonna break it, why don't you keep it?

It ain't doin' nothin' but keepin' me u,p
I can't help it, it just loves what it loves.
It hurt like hell when you tore it apart,
but I didn't know that it would take it this hard.
(This Heart / Thomas Archer, Blake Bollinger, Jacob Hackworth, Michael Tyler)

'This Heart' didn't enter the radio (Billboard Country Airplay) chart until summer of 2024. At that time, the previous single, 'Something's Gonna Kill Me' had already sold more than 500,000 copies and was certified gold by the RIAA, even though it only reached number 40 on the radio (Billboard Country Airplay) chart. Today, it boasts over 70 million streams on Spotify alone.

On the radio (Billboard Country Airplay) chart of March 21, 2025, 'This Heart' (from the current album "Black Bandana") sits at number 24 after 39 weeks with a continuing upward trend. No matter how slow the progress on the charts, songs with drama and passion, like this one, are a perfect fit for Corey Kent and his rock-influenced style.

"In an earlier time, country artists released three or four singles per year, and those that succeeded would peak on the chart in 12 to 18 weeks," wrote Tom Roland at billboard.com after the 2025 Country Radio Seminar. So just how much more difficult is it for artists of today to focus on a current single for such a long time? It get's demonstrated by the fact that Corey Kent just released a new song ('Girl I Never Met') on March 7, 2025, which already has over 1 million streams on Spotify after just two weeks, while his official current single still seems to be climbing the charts ...