ABC/Kelsey McNealWith more than 1,900 restaurants spread across 25 states, it’s safe to say Waffle House is popular — so popular, in fact, that its jukeboxes have spawned their own music awards.
That’s right, the first-ever Tunie Awards show happened in Georgia Friday night, and based on the plays from the eateries’ TouchTunes Jukeboxes, Khalid‘s “Location” was named the top song.
Khalid topped Sam Hunt, Justin Timberlake and Ed Sheeran; the results are based on the 30 million songs played on Waffle House/TouchTunes Jukeboxes over the past 12 months.
“Blue Ain’t Your Color” by Keith Urban — last year’s number one-ranked song, held tough at number five for 2018.
Here’s the official list of Waffle House Jukebox Top Ten Songs of 2018:
“Location” by Khalid
“Body Like A Back Road” by Sam Hunt
“Can’t Stop the Feeling!” by Justin Timberlake
“Shape of You” by Ed Sheeran
“Blue Ain’t Your Color” by Keith Urban
“Tennessee Whiskey” by Chris Stapleton
“Uptown Funk” by Mark Ronson feat. Bruno Mars
“Thinking Out Loud” by Ed Sheeran
“Too Good at Goodbyes” by Sam Smith
“Can’t Feel My Face” by The Weeknd
According to a company release, the most played artist was Michael Jackson, who was posthumously also named Best Pop Artist.
Best R&B/Hip Hop Artist went to Beyonce; Lynyrd Skynyrd won the Best Rock Artist award.
Chris Stapleton had the most country songs played and took home the Tunie award for Best Country Artist.
Many of the artists had fun with the honor. Stapleton commented, “I’ve had a lot of dreams come true. One of the dreams I wanted is to have a song on the Waffle House jukebox. Not only did I get a song on the Waffle House jukebox, I got this fantastic award. So thank you very much.”
Imagine Dragons, winner of the Tunie Award for the most played rock song for “Thunder,” referenced the eatery’s famous grits. “That means the world to us,” drummer Dan Platzman said on the show. “This is like you basically took our hearts, and you scattered, smothered, double-covered and peppered them.”
