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What Shaboozey's "A Bar Song (Tipsy)" Is Really About
The song that's been dominating the charts all year has a deeper meaning than just drinking.
With over 10 weeks at the top of the charts, Shaboozey's "A Bar Song (Tipsy)" might be the breakout hit of the year. In just under three minutes, the guitar-forward track manages to transport listeners to a local dive bar, sipping something strong with the artist. Here's the story behind the song:
"A Bar Song (Tipsy)" started with a hit from 2004
Twenty years before "A Bar Song (Tipsy)" hit the airwaves, rapper J-Kwon released his song "Tipsy," an ode to getting buzzed in the club. Shaboozey's song interpolates J-Kwon's, but instead of being about having fun at the club, his is a more grounded track about flushing away your worries at a bar, with lines like "This 9 to 5 ain't workin', why the hell do I work so hard?" It's about a party, yes, but also blowing off steam after a long day.
“I had been wanting to flip a 2000s song for a while,” Shaboozey told Billboard. “I just said, ‘Everybody at the bar getting tipsy,’ and then we were like, ‘Oh, sh-t!’ The producer picked up the guitar and started playing the chords, and then we started writing, just having fun and being creative.” (The main hook in J-Kwon's song says "Everybody in the club getting tipsy.")
“We love incorporating gang vocals and all our friends singing things,” he revealed to Rolling Stone. “I think the more energy and the more people you put on a song, the more it’s felt, adding that the recording session "definitely turned into a party by the end of the song, which is a good sign.”
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Who is Shaboozey?
The Nigerian-American musician was raised in Woodbridge, Virginia, a suburb of Richmond. He released his first album, Lady Wrangler, in 2018, but it wasn't until Beyoncé heard him perform "A Bar Song (Tipsy)," which was then unreleased, that he got his biggest break.
She asked him to feature on two songs from her album Cowboy Carter, and Shaboozey (real name Collins Obinna Chibueze) capitalized on the bump in visibility, dropping his second album, Where I’ve Been, Isn’t Where I’m Going, shortly after Cowboy Carter's release.
He told Esquire that he doesn't talk about his personal life.
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Shaboozey's 2024 PCCA nominations
The artist is nominated in an impressive seven categories at the 2024 People's Choice Country Awards: The New Artist of 2024; The Album of 2024; The Song of 2024, The Male Song of 2024, and The New Artist Song of 2024 for "A Bar Song (Tipsy)"; The Music Video of 2024 for "Let It Burn"; and The Crossover Song of 2024 for "My Fault" featuring Noah Cyrus.
The 2024 People's Choice Country Awards will air live on NBC and be available to stream on Peacock on Thursday, September 26, 2024 at 8/7c.
