The Whiskey Riff Madness 2021 Sweet Sixteen is over. And we had some SHOCKING upsets in this round.
Over 100,000 votes have been cast so far for your favorite country song of the ’90s, and after three rounds, the competition is closer than ever.
But first, as always, let’s talk about the blowouts.
King George put on an absolute CLINIC against Tim McGraw, with “Check Yes or No” taking 75% of the vote against “Don’t Take the Girl.” And in a surprising blowout, “Chattahoochee” got a whopping 78% of the vote against Brooks & Dunn’s “My Maria.” Wasn’t expecting that one to be so lopsided, that’s for sure.
“Dust On the Bottle” put up a good fight against “Friends in Low Places,” but ultimately only managed to get around 30% of the vote against the #1 seed.
And that’s it for the blowouts. Everything else was CLOSE.
Joe Diffie’s “Prop Me Up Beside the Jukebox (If I Die)” led most of the day and ultimately dispensed with Reba’s “Fancy.” And after some early trading of the lead back and forth, Tim McGraw’s “I Like It, I Love It” managed to pull away to knock out Jo Dee Messina’s “Heads Carolina, Tails California.”
And in an absolutely shocking loss, Toby Keith’s “Should’ve Been a Cowboy” managed to get an early lead on “Boot Scootin’ Boogie” and held on to knock out Brooks & Dunn’s biggest hit, which means we have our first #1 seed out of the tournament.
We also had two matches that were once again decided by less than 1%. “Watermelon Crawl” took a big lead early, but “The Dance” gained some ground late in the day to make it a close matchup. But in the end, “Watermelon Crawl” held on to its lead to send “The Dance” packing by a mere handful of votes.
And the battle that I suspected would be the closest of the round didn’t disappoint. After trading the lead all day long, “John Deere Green” eventually emerged victorious over “Neon Moon,” making it a clean sweep for Joe Diffie and knocking Brooks & Dunn out of the tournament entirely.
Definitely wasn’t expecting that from a team that had FOUR entries in the tournament.
What a round.
And folks, it’s already time to do it all over again. The matchups are set as eight songs battle for a spot in the Final Four of Whiskey Riff Madness 2021.
As always, voting ends at 11:59 PM central time tonight, and you can vote here as many times as you want. Trust me, if you have a song you want to see in the finals, you’re going to want to throw it a couple extra votes to make sure it makes it on to the next round.
Oh, and it’s almost the weekend, so crack a nice bottle of Creole Williams’ homemade wine while you’re voting.
Sweet Sixteen winners below in bold.
(1) Friends in Low Places vs. (5) Dust on the Bottle
(6) Heads Carolina, Tails California vs. (10) I Like It, I Love It
(1) Check Yes or No vs. (12) Don’t Take the Girl
(11) Prop Me Up Beside the Jukebox (If I Die) vs. (2) Fancy
(1) Chattahoochee vs. (12) My Maria
(3) Neon Moon vs. (2) John Deere Green
(1) Boot Scootin’ Boogie vs. (4) Should’ve Been a Cowboy
(3) The Dance vs. (2) Watermelon Crawl
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