Adele Will Make Country Radio Debut With Easy On Me featuring Chris Stapleton

Adele has officially gone country with her new "Easy on Me" collaboration with Chris Stapleton, which was released this week. Billboard has heard that the single, a duet version of her current Billboard Hot 100 chart-topper, will debut on country radio first thing Friday.

Stapleton's version is on the deluxe edition of Adele's album 30, which will be released on Friday. According to Rod Phillips, executive vice president, Programming for iHeartCountry, the song will get a boost from iHeartMedia through featured airplay every hour Friday on all iHeart country radio stations.

“Any time you put two superstars like that together, it’s a moment, a collaboration we want to lean into,” Phillips tells. “If something this big comes together, we’re on it at the highest level. We’re excited to give it to listeners across the country. Like all hits, the listeners get to decide. We’ll watch all the metrics and get a read on it with the way we do research and find out how big it can be.”

While Adele's music has charted in categories as diverse as pop, alternative, R&B/hip-hop, dance, Latin, and smooth jazz, this could be the first time she appears on Billboard's country ranks.

Despite the fact that Adele is signed to Sony Music's Columbia label and Stapleton to Universal Music Group Nashville's Mercury label, neither Sony Music Nashville nor Universal Music Group Nashville is promoting the song to country radio. Instead, Billboard has learned that in2une Music will be the only promoter of the song on country radio.

Despite the fact that this would be Adele's first trip onto Billboard's country charts, she isn't unfamiliar with country music or Stapleton: Adele sang "If It Hadn't Been for Love" as a bonus track for her album 21, a song co-written and performed by Stapleton while he was the lead singer/songwriter for the bluegrass band The SteelDrivers. Adele also sang alongside Darius Rucker on CMT's Artists of the Year special in 2010, serenading Lady A with a rendition of their blockbuster single "Need You Now."

Stapleton, on the other hand, has recently become the go-to country performer for cross-genre collaborations. Stapleton and Jennifer Hudson had a searing rendition of "Night Life" and "You Are My Sunshine" at the CMA Awards last week. Stapleton collaborated with H.E.R. on a blues-infused rendition of "Hold On" at the CMT Music Awards. P!nk ("Love Me Anyway"), Ed Sheeran and Bruno Mars ("Blow"), Kelly Clarkson ("Glow"), Justin Timberlake ("Say Something"), Sheryl Crow ("Tell Me When It's Over"), Santana ("Joy"), Morgan Wallen ("Only Thing That's Gone"), and Morgan Wallen ("Only Thing That's Gone"), as well as a recent release from Taylor Swift's Red (Taylor')

Adele isn't the only pop sensation making waves on country radio thanks to a collaboration with Chris Stapleton. "I Bet You Think About Me" debuted at No. 23 on Billboard's Country Airplay chart on November 20. Swift scores the second-highest debut of her 39 overall Country Airplay entries with the song, following "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together," which debuted at No. 13 on the chart in 2012.

Stapleton, of course, shot to fame in 2015 after an amazing collaboration with Timberlake on Stapleton's "Tennessee Whiskey" and Timberlake's "Drink You Away" at the CMA Awards that year. "You Should Probably Leave" by Stapleton is presently No. 15 on the Billboard Country Airplay chart, while "I Bet You Think About Me (Taylor's Version)" is No. 23. Stapleton is expected to have three songs on Billboard's Country Airplay chart with the release of this duet.

For a bonus track on her 21 albums, Adele covered "If It Hadn't Been For Love," a song Stapleton co-wrote and performed as a member of the band The SteelDrivers. Stapleton told Country Rebel that he didn't know who Adele was when he first heard about the cover, but he "liked" her interpretation.

10 million That's about how many people turned in to CBS's Adele: One Night Only special, in which she sang some of the album's new tracks, including "Hold On" and "Love Is A Game."