"Forever After All" is a song by American

country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...

singer

Luke Combs Luke Albert Combs (born March 2, 1990) is an American country music, country singer. He was born in North Carolina and grew up there, performing as a child. After leaving college to pursue a career in music, he moved to Nashville, Tennessee, Nas ...

, It was released on October 23, 2020, as part of ''What You See Ain't Always What You Get'', the deluxe edition of his second studio album, ''

What You See Is What You Get In computing, WYSIWYG ( ), an acronym for what you see is what you get, refers to software that allows content to be edited in a form that resembles its appearance when printed or displayed as a finished product, such as a printed document, web ...

''. Following its release, the song broke

Apple Music Apple Music is an audio and video streaming service developed by Apple Inc. Users can select music to stream to their device on-demand, or listen to existing playlists. The service also includes the sister internet radio stations Apple Musi ...

and

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a List of companies of Sweden, Swedish Music streaming service, audio streaming and media service provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. , it is one of the largest providers of music streaming services ...

's streaming records for a country song. Commercially, the song debuted at number two on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100, behind

Ariana Grande Ariana Grande-Butera ( ; born June 26, 1993) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Regarded as a pop icon and an influential figure in popular music, Grande is known for her four-octave vocal range, which extends into the whistle re ...

's " Positions", and number one on the

Hot Country Songs Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data along with digital sales and streaming. ...

chart for the week ending November 7, 2020. This single, along with his cover of "

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", is his highest charting song to date on the Hot 100.

Background and writing

"Forever After All" was the first song Combs wrote after he and his wife, Nicole, moved into their house in

Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...

. It was written in January 2019, and was further co-written by Combs' frequent collaborators, Rob Williford and Drew Parker. This was beneficial to Combs as he found it "easier to open up with guys that you've written with a lot". The song was first previewed by Combs on August 27, 2020, on the video-sharing app

TikTok TikTok, known in mainland China and Hong Kong as Douyin (), is a social media and Short-form content, short-form online video platform owned by Chinese Internet company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which may range in duration f ...

. He later shared a video on Instagram featuring some of the lyrics. Combs recalled, "once we teased the song, people's reaction was really awesome. I don't think we expected it to be that big". He said they were "trying to hold

he song He or HE may refer to: Language * He (letter), the fifth letter of the Semitic abjads * He (pronoun), a pronoun in Modern English * He (kana), one of the Japanese kana (へ in hiragana and ヘ in katakana) * Ge (Cyrillic), a Cyrillic letter cal ...

back for a long time and not play it". The song is a continuance of " Beautiful Crazy" and "Better Together", which were both dedicated to his wife, whom he married in August 2020. He stated, "You could write a generic love song, and not to say it couldn't be done, but my wife's impact on my life has weighed heavily on the outcome of these songs".

Composition

"Forever After All" is a "tender", "romantic" midtempo country love song. It sees Combs harmonizing about his wife's unique attributes, and how, unlike material things, their love will "last forever after all". The ballad reflects on how love is everlasting, even through death.

Live performances

On the day of the song's release, Combs, accompanied with a full band, performed it on Facebook Live along with the rest of the songs on the deluxe album. The performance benefited the

MusiCares MusiCares Foundation is a non-profit organization established in 1989 and incorporated in 1993 by the The Recording Academy, National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Meant for musicians to have a place to turn in times of financial, pers ...

foundation.

Commercial performance

"Forever After All" set the record for the biggest first day streams for a country song on

, reaching number one on the platform's global chart. It also earned the most first day streams for a country song by a solo artist on

. The song debuted at number one on the

chart and number two on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart. "Forever After All" reached number one on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

Country Airplay Country Airplay is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States since October 20, 2012, although the magazine also retrospectively recognizes the Hot Country Songs charts from January 20, 1990, through October 13, 2012, ...

chart dated June 5, 2021, making Combs the second artist to score six number one singles from a single album, and tying

Luke Bryan Thomas Luther "Luke" Bryan (born July 17, 1976) is an American country music singer, songwriter, and television personality. Bryan is a five-time "Entertainer of the Year", being awarded by both the Academy of Country Music Awards and the Count ...

for the most from an album.

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

{{authority control 2020 songs 2021 singles Luke Combs songs Songs written by Luke Combs Country ballads Billboard Hot Country Songs number-one singles of the year Songs about marriage Columbia Nashville Records singles