American Idol 2021 winner Chayce Beckham drops haunting, long-awaited “23” music video
Chayce Beckham releases the official music video for his self-written, massive viral hit song “23.”
Originally released during his winning American Idol season 19 in 2021, the breakout hit instantly shot to the top of numerous viral charts, including #1 on iTunes All-Genre and Country charts. The first to ever win the star-making competition series with an original song, “23” is a deeply personal story about a man’s hardships, written during a particularly dark time in Chayce’s own life before he auditioned for American Idol.
Having become an anthemic staple in the country singer’s live shows, “23” has racked up over 278 million on-demand streams, is RIAA-certified GOLD and is Top 30 and still climbing at country radio.
Watch the haunting music video below, which opens with Chayce singing and accompanying himself on acoustic guitar. The storyline depicts a young musician drinking until his girlfriend leaves him and he’s finally arrested after a drunken brawl. And it ends with a twist!
The fans demanded “23” become a radio single
The label, BBR music, didn’t send “23” to radio until months after he won American Idol.
“It ended up now it’s the song we’re coming to radio with just because the audience [is] basically telling us that’s what they wanted to hear,” told radio personality Bobby Bones in an interview.
“It was fun to get to perform it,” said Chayce, “And I got a win with that song, something that I wrote on my couch when I was 23.”
Calling “23” structurally unorthodox, Chayce said it didn’t take him long to write the Ross Copperfield produced song. “Even when we recorded it, they’re like ‘It should end right here’ and I [said] ‘no, it needs to go on a little bit longer, I think it was just out of the box.”
“It wasn’t something I put a lot of effort into, and sometimes that’s [where] the best music comes…when you just grab something and run with it.”
Chayce is set to tour with American Idol judge Luke Bryan
Currently out on the road with American Idol judge Luke Bryan for his 2023 Country On Tour as well as performing his own headlining shows and at high-profile music festivals such as Faster Horses, Watershed and more, Chayce is quickly readying even more new music to follow his most-recent release of his latest song “Till The Day I Die” that he performed on American Idol earlier this year, in addition to “Keeping Me Up All Night,” and his debut EP Doin It Right that hit No. 1 on the iTunes All Genre and Country charts.
Check out Chayce’s tour schedule HERE.
