Daughtry talks charting on Billboard, career

It’s been almost a year since Newton Grove native Michael Daughtry charted on the Billboard charts, but he said it is still one of the “most fun accomplishments that he’s had.”

And it all started in June of 2023, when Daughtry talked to his friend Kari Kirkland, a jazz artist based out of Los Angeles who had charted on the Billboard charts earlier that year.

“I approached a friend of mine in Los Angeles,” Daughtry began, telling the story of how he charted on Billboard. “I noticed that she had charted in jazz, and I said, you know. ‘How did you go about it?’”

He continued his story by saying that Kirkland had pointed him in the direction of Music Promotions Inc.

“She basically introduced me to some folks, like a PR company, that they do, like, radio campaigns and stuff like that.”

Daughtry said once he got in touch with the company, they asked him to send three to four singles he thought was his best work. He sent them four singles which they then sent to a producer to see if they had any appeal to listeners.

“So, I sent four songs, and at first they were like, ‘no, no, no, no,’” Daughtry explained.

But, Daughtry said, the producer felt like he could work with one of the singles — “Nothing Special.”

“He sort of picked out ‘Nothing Special.’ He was like, I feel like I could work with this, remix it for radio and see where we go with it. So he did that.”

And that is how the radio remix of “Nothing Special” was released and sent out to radio stations across America.

The song, according to Daughtry, was able to chart on Mediabase, but he was still holding out for hope that it would hit the Adult Contemporary charts on Billboard.

“But after a while, it was like, OK, is this actually going to chart on Billboard?” Daughtry questioned. “All this other stuff was cool. It was great. But, you know, I had my eyes on… OK, I want the Billboard.”

Then, on Aug. 18, Daughtry got the news that his single had hit number 28 on the chart. “Nothing Special” would go on to peak at number 23 for the next two weeks before it dropped back down.

Daughtry, of course, ran to social media when he heard about his single hitting the Billboard charts.

“Well, I had to do, you know, it’s sort of a thing now in modern day to get on social media,” Daughtry said with a laugh. “So, I did a video where I was on, did my TikTok and my Instagram and Facebook and thanked everybody that helped. Did the, you know, the ‘I did it, we did it’ kind of thing.”

“So that was, that reaction was pure, pure elation,” Daughtry attested.

But getting to the Billboard charts was not just a 10-week battle, Daughtry stated. It was something that was years in the making, and more than him just releasing music.

“It was about a two to three year process,” he admitted. “Because I had to make sure the website and all the internet stuff and online stuff was at the same level … professional looking and all that good stuff, like making sure we could compete with major label artists.

He explained that by being an independent artist, aiming for the Billboard charts was like “aiming into the Death Star in ‘Star Wars’.”

He talked about an incident where someone from a record label threatened to pull out all of their artists from the radio campaigns if they didn’t stop playing his song.

“There was one incident where a promoter and like a record label person, who represented like six or seven major label artists, threatened to pull out all of those artists from the radio campaigns if they kept playing my song,” Daughtry recalled.

But he said another aspect that helped him chart was what the song was about.

“The song was written about my grandparents, and it was sort of about the things that they left me,” Daughtry said.

He explained how he created the song based off of a blanket his grandma had crotchet for him and the luggage his grandpa had left him.

But, he said the style of the song also helped. Instead of having a single compete for the charts that sounded like every other summer party song, he wanted it to stand out to the people listening, which is what he stressed is helpful when trying to achieve your dreams.

“Be yourself and stand out,” Daughtry said. “That’s like my mantra. Find ways that you can stand out from other artists because it’s a very competitive market.”

When asked about future projects, Daughtry proudly brought up the fact that he is working on a new music, but he doesn’t know when it will be released.

“I am working on a new EP that is coming out, hopefully this summer or fall,” Daughtry stressed. “I don’t even want to like, give a date. It’s like I’m sort of going at my own pace because I feel like that’s the best I can do as an independent artist.”

But he does have one song that he’s excited for people to listen to, and one, he said, that might have a similar trajectory of “Nothing Special.”

“It’s called ‘Sleep Sound,’” Daughtry said. “That is one song that I feel like could [chart].”

But even if it doesn’t, Daughtry said he’s OK with not charting again as long as he can still connect with fans.

“Obviously the Billboard was a big, fun accomplishment,” Daughtry explained. “I still think, though, that the thing that gives me the validation is when I just play. If I can look at somebody while I’m playing my song and see that they’re connected, that they’re feeling something, that they’re into the song, into the moment, that’s worth all the other stuff. Because there’s a lot of stuff with this life.”

Although Daughtry said he would not tour unless it was “very enticing,” he does have gigs set up to perform live all around Raleigh, Fayetteville and Wilmington. And he’s performing in Charleston in July.

If you would like to see him perform live or listen to his music, check out www.michaeldaughtrymusic.com or follow him on social media @MichaelDaughtry.