Country Fan Fest is excited to welcome a great, successful group of artists to their our stages for our fifth summer festival. Our Utah fans are ready to rock.
Blending a love of classic country and Southern-fried soul -- a fusion inspired equally by fellow modern mavericks Eric Church and Chris Stapleton -- Luke Combs slyly updates these traditional sounds with a hint of modern R&B. This combination, which flourished on ballads, made Combs stand apart from both slick country-pop crooners and bro country revelers, a distinction that helped him become a hit right out of the gate. His first single, 2016's "Hurricane," launched a series of five number one Billboard Country Airplay hits in a row. "When It Rains It Pours," "One Number Away," "She Got the Best of Me," and "Beautiful Crazy" -- all pulled from his 2017 debut album This One's for You, the latter pair coming from an expanded reissue of the record -- arrived over the course of the next two years, a period that saw Combs becoming one of the biggest stars in Nashville, a status cemented by his win of the Country Music Associations' Best New Artist award in 2018.
Luke Combs is from North Carolina, born in Charlotte and raised in Asheville, where he moved when he was eight years old. As a teenager, he played football and sang in vocal groups. While attending college at Appalachian State -- the same school Eric Church attended years earlier -- he decided to put his studies on the back burner so he could concentrate on country music. Learning how to play guitar, Combs amassed a catalog of original songs as he played shows on a regular basis.
Combs continued to gain momentum during the back half of 2018 thanks to the ballad "Beautiful Crazy." Originally an internet sensation, "Beautiful Crazy" became a smash on radio late in 2018, reaching number one on the Country Airplay chart in March 2019; its success was a factor in Combs receiving a Grammy Nomination for Best New Artist in 2019. "Beautiful Crazy" spent seven straight weeks at number one on Country Airplay, breaking the previous records for longevity on the charts. The single also helped Combs earn the distinction of being the first artist to simultaneously hold the top position on all five of Billboard's main country charts: Top Country Albums, Hot Country Songs, Country Airplay, Country Streaming Songs, and Country Digital Song Sales.
We welcome Luke Combs to our stage on Saturday.
*adapted from the Artists’ Spotify biography.