20 Cigarettes (song)

Last updated
"20 Cigarettes"
Song by Morgan Wallen
from the album I'm the Problem
ReleasedMay 16, 2025
Genre Country pop
Length2:40
Label
Songwriter(s)
  • Blake Pendergrass
  • Chase McGill
  • Josh Miller
  • Chris LaCorte
Producer(s) Joey Moi
Lyric video
"20 Cigarettes" on YouTube

"20 Cigarettes" is a song by American country music singer Morgan Wallen, released on May 16, 2025 from his fourth studio album I'm the Problem . It was written by Blake Pendergrass, Chase McGill, Josh Miller and Chris LaCorte, and produced by Joey Moi.

Contents

Composition

The song uses electric guitar and opens with a sparser instrumental. A bass line and percussion are introduced during the second verse, before the bass is featured in a instrumental break in the bridge. [1] The story begins with the protagonist possessing 20 cigarettes and hanging out at a bar in Demonbreun, an area of Nashville, Tennessee, on a summer evening. He catches the attention of a woman, who leaves her friends to meet him. [1] [2] They start talking, smoking, drinking and flirting with each other. They leave Demonbreun in the night, driving out of the city in his truck and singing "Take Me Home, Country Roads" by John Denver. [1] They have sex in the truck bed and share their last cigarette, before the woman later disappears. [1] [2]

Critical reception

Billboard ranked "20 Cigarettes" as the 16th best song from I'm the Problem and commented the song's story was "smartly told". [2] Reviewing I'm the Problem for Paste , Hattie Lindert responded negatively to the song, regarding it as among the "rompier, lighter fare" that "seem slightly stale amid a slew of sour-grapes songs" and adding, "For what it's worth, even '20 Cigarettes' is both a clear and inferior rehash of the bossa-nova-inflected sound that buoyed Wallen's unexpected 2021 hit '7 Summers'". [3]

Charts

Chart performance for "20 Cigarettes"
Chart (2025)Peak
position
Canada (Canadian Hot 100) [4] 33
Global 200 ( Billboard ) [5] 60
US Billboard Hot 100 [6] 20
US Hot Country Songs ( Billboard ) [7] 8

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Innes, Daisy (May 16, 2025). "'20 Cigarettes' by Morgan Wallen - Lyrics and Meaning". Holler. Retrieved May 28, 2025.
  2. 1 2 3 Newman, Melinda; Nicholson, Jessica (May 16, 2025). "Morgan Wallen's 'I'm the Problem': All 37 Tracks Ranked". Billboard . Retrieved May 28, 2025.
  3. ↑ "Morgan Wallen Loses Sight of His Own Idiosyncrasies on I'm The Problem". Paste . Retrieved May 28, 2025.
  4. ↑ "Morgan Wallen Chart History (Canadian Hot 100)". Billboard. Retrieved May 28, 2025.
  5. ↑ "Morgan Wallen Chart History (Global 200)". Billboard. Retrieved May 28, 2025.
  6. ↑ "Morgan Wallen Chart History (Hot 100)". Billboard. Retrieved May 28, 2025.
  7. ↑ "Morgan Wallen Chart History (Hot Country Songs)". Billboard. Retrieved May 28, 2025.
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