Jolene, Coat of Many Colors Top Chart After Dolly Parton’s Death: Nigerians Pay Tribute

Dolly Parton died on Tuesday, August 25, at age 80, and within a day her songs “Jolene,” “9 to 5” and “Coat of Many Colors” had climbed back to the top of the US Apple Music charts. The surge came as tributes poured in from fellow musicians, US politicians and fans as far away as Nigeria.

Dolly Parton passed away on Tuesday, August 25, at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville, Tennessee.

Her nephew, Bryan Seaver, shared the news in a video her team said she had asked him to record years in advance.

Within a day of her death, seven of Parton’s songs appeared on the US Apple Music Top 100 chart, according to tracking shared by the account Pop Cruise on X. “Jolene,” her 1973 hit, took the top spot. “9 to 5” followed at number three. “Islands in the Stream,” her 1983 duet with Kenny Rogers, sat at number eight, with “I Will Always Love You” at number nine.

Further down the list, “Coat of Many Colors” reached number 21, “Why’d You Come In Here Lookin’ Like That” landed at 35, and “Here You Come Again” placed at 38.

The pattern is familiar for major artists after death, but the scale of it shows how wide Parton’s reach was. Her songs span five decades and multiple genres, from country ballads to pop crossovers, which explains why so many different tracks climbed at once rather than just one or two.

Following her passing, President Trump posted a tribute on Truth Social on Tuesday, August 25, calling Parton “one of the greatest Country singers, and far beyond, EVER” and saying her death was “a true loss for millions of people.” He also ordered US flags lowered to half-staff nationwide for one week, starting at 6:00 PM that evening, an honor typically reserved for major political or military figures rather than entertainers.

Keith Urban posted to his Instagram Stories that he was “heartbroken today” and had no words. Jane Fonda, Parton’s co-star in the 1980 film “9 to 5,” called the loss devastating in her own statement. Sabrina Carpenter, who featured Parton on a deluxe version of her song “Please Please Please,” wrote that she would keep Parton’s “wisdom” and “sense of humor” with her, and that the world would search forever for that kind of magic again.

The tributes were not limited to the American music industry. On X, Nigerian fans celebrated the song “Coat of Many Colors,” calling it “more than a song” and noting, “we would always love you from Nigeria.”

Another fan wrote that “Jolene” hitting number one was “a beautiful reminder that your music will keep touching hearts forever.”

The reactions explained how far Parton’s songwriting traveled beyond country radio and beyond the United States. “Coat of Many Colors,” written about a coat her mother sewed for her from rags, and “Jolene,” a song about a woman confronting a rival for her husband’s affection, are two of her most personal compositions. Both drew large numbers of tribute posts from fans who grew up listening to their parents play them in Nigeria.

Parton wrote most of her biggest hits herself. “I Will Always Love You,” written in 1973, became one of the best-selling singles in history after Whitney Houston recorded it for the 1992 film “The Bodyguard.” “9 to 5,” written for the film of the same name, became a working-class anthem that topped three separate Billboard charts at once: pop, country, and easy listening.

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Her final Grammy came in 2021 in the contemporary Christian category for a song called “There Was Jesus,” recorded with Zach Williams. She had also been nominated this past year for an audiobook recording of her memoir, “Behind the Seams: My Life in Rhinestones.”

Family donations in her memory are being directed to her Imagination Library, the children’s book charity she founded, which has sent more than 332 million free books to children around the world since it began 31 years ago.

Parton was preceded in death by her husband, Carl Dean, who died in March 2025 at age 82. The couple were married for almost 58 years and had no children.