More than 16 months after she released her song "Somebody Like That," Tenille Arts has her first country radio No. 1 single. Her time at the top of the charts marks a major first for female creatives, and ends a decade-plus-long drought for Canadian-born artists.

After 52 weeks on the Mediabase / Country Aircheck country radio chart, "Somebody Like That" moved from No. 3 to the top spot. The song, which Arts debuted at the Grand Ole Opry in September of 2019, is her first charting single.

Arts co-wrote "Somebody Like That" with Allison Cruz and Alex Kline, the latter of whom also produced the song. Therefore, it's the first country single written, performed and produced completely by women to hit No. 1, and Kline is the first solo female producer to earn a No. 1 country radio single.

No Canadian-born country artist has hit No. 1 at country radio since 2007, when Emerson Drive did so with "Moments." Arts is the first Canadian woman to top the country radio charts since Terri Clark did so in 2004 with her single "Girls Lie Too."

"Somebody Like That" comes from Arts' Love, Heartbreak & Everything in Between album, released in January of 2020 via 19th & Grand Records. She's a 2021 CMT Next Women of Country class member, a 2021 CRS New Faces of Country Music performer and a 2021 ACM New Female Artist of the Year nominee.

"I wasn't the same person, like, five years ago, and I wasn't creating the same type of music, so I'm really happy with where things are now, and that it's all happening during this time in my life," says Arts, who moved to Nashville in the mid-2010s, during a recent video interview. "It all happens when it's supposed to, and I've just been working hard ... so, yeah, it just feels really good that all those years of hard work were leading towards something."

Born and raised in Weyburn, Saskatchewan -- a small prairie town of about 10,000 people -- Arts began playing guitar and songwriting when she was 13. She's been featured as a performer on The Bachelor three times, which Arts admits is "a very unique way of getting your music out there," but has earned her countless fans.

"They've just got this amazing fanbase that is also country music fans, so it's just this weird culmination of two things," Arts muses, "... and they're also very invested in the show, so I feel like any time [The Bachelor showrunners] show [viewers] something different, they're very eager to go check it out, and they want to be a part of that and learn about it."

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Arts has been writing and recording new songs via Zoom -- "a very different process than usual," she admits, but one that, nonetheless, has her "super excited" about her new music.

"I'm ready to get it out there, and we just have so much new stuff," Arts says. "For me, what quarantine did was, it had me reflecting back on some of my teenage years and thinking about songs that I wish I had growing up ... so that's kind of been my focus."

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