Dolly Parton Honored With Trio of Guinness World Records

Dolly Parton continues to be a hero. The country music superstar was honored on Thursday night in Nashville, TN, by the Guinness World Records, earning three certifications for her extraordinary achievements. Two of the awards were for the most decades (seven) spent on the Billboard US Hot Country Songs chart for a female artist and most No.1 hits (25) for a female artist. Parton also broke the record for most hits to make it onto the Billboard chart period, having 109 songs chart over the course of her career. 

“This is the kind of stuff that really makes you very humble and very grateful for everything that’s happened. I had no idea that I would be in Guinness World Records this many times! I am flattered and honored,” said Parton in an interview with the Guinness World Records organization. “I’ve had a lot of people help me get here. Thanks to all of you and all of them for helping me have all of this.”

“I’ve loved being able to make a living in the business that I love so much,” Parton said about her long career. “I’ve been so fortunate to see my dreams come true, and I just hope to continue for as long as I can. You’re going to have to knock me down to stop me!” Hopefully, this honor will appease Parton’s fans, who were up In arms after Elon Musk was named TIME Magazine‘s Person of the Year for 2021, with many slamming the decision and declaring that Parton was far more deserving of the award.

While Musk received the honor for “creating solutions to an existential crisis, for embodying the possibilities and the perils of the age of tech titans, for driving society’s most daring and disruptive transformations,” according to Time editor-in-chief Edward Felsenthal, many couldn’t help but note the numerous contributions Parton has made over the past year. In addition to continuing to be a music legend, Parton has continued to run her Dolly’s Imagination Library, which gifts free books to children from birth until they begin school. Perhaps even more notable, though, was Parton’s involvement in the COVID-19 vaccine. In 2020, the “9 to 5” singer donated $1 million to fund research for the Modern vaccine, and in March 2021, she helped encourage others to roll up her sleeve by sharing a “Jolene” parody as she received her first Moderna dose.