William "Billy" Ray Cyrus is an American singer, songwriter and actor. Having released 16 studio albums and 53 singles since 1992, he is known for his hit single "Achy Breaky Heart", which topped the U.S. Hot Country Songs chart and became the first single ever to achieve triple platinum status in Australia. It was also the best-selling single in the same country in 1992. Due to the song's music video, the line dance rose in popularity.
A multi-platinum selling artist, Cyrus has scored a total of eight top-ten singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. His most successful album to date is his debut Some Gave All, which has been certified 9× multi-platinum in the United States and is the longest time spent by a debut artist and by a country artist at number one on the Billboard 200 (17 consecutive weeks) and most consecutive chart-topping weeks in the SoundScan era. Some Gave All was also the first debut album to enter at number one on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart. The album has also sold more than 20 million copies worldwide and is the best-selling debut album of all time for a solo male artist. Some Gave All was also the best-selling album of 1992 in the US with 4,832,000 copies. During his career he has released 36 charted singles, of which 17 charted in the top 40.
In 2019, Cyrus earned his first number-one single on the US Billboard Hot 100 as a featured artist on a remix of Lil Nas X's song "Old Town Road", which spent a record-breaking nineteen consecutive weeks at the top spot (eighteen of them credited to Cyrus). It also spent a record-breaking twenty consecutive weeks (nineteen of them credited to Cyrus) at the top spot on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and Billboard Hot Rap Songs. The R&B/Hip-hop record has been broken in May 2023 by SZA's "Kill Bill". Thanks to "Old Town Road", Cyrus won his first two Grammy Awards, in the categories Best Pop Duo/Group Performance and Best Music Video.
From 2001 to 2004, Cyrus starred in the television show Doc. The show was about a country doctor who moved from Montana to New York City. From 2006 to 2011, he starred as Robby Ray Stewart in the Disney Channel series Hannah Montana with his daughter Miley Cyrus playing the title character. From 2016 to 2017, he starred as Vernon Brownmule on the CMT sitcom Still the King.
