Multi-platinum-selling Quartz Hill Records artist Joe Nichols was honored Friday evening (Feb 28th) with a Pandora Billionaire Plaque after his performance at SiriusXM The Highway’s weekly Music Row Happy Hour at Margaritaville in the heart of downtown Nashville.

Nichols was surprised with the coveted plaque – which is presented to artists that have achieved over one billion song streams on Pandora – by SiriusXM The Highway host Buzz Brainard. Joining Nichols and Brainard onstage was Bekah Digby, Associate Director of Talent & Industry Relations – Country & Christian at SiriusXM and Pandora, who also represented Johnny Chiang, Vice President of Music Programming – Country at SiriusXM and Pandora.

Nichols’ music is now featured on Pandora’s Country Billionaires station.

“This means the world to me,” states Nichols. “To the Pandora listeners, thank you for caring enough to engage with my music, which is what I’ve wanted most from the time I was a kid. And to Pandora, thank you for giving me a platform to play my music on and giving me the chance to go out there and meet the fans.”

The Music Row Happy Hour’s live audience enthusiastically sang along to Nichols’ three-song set, which included two of his No. 1 country classics, “Brokenheartsville” and “Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off,” as well as a new fan favorite, “Helpless in a Honky Tonk,” from Nichols’ 11th studio album, Honky Tonks and Country Songs, released this past fall.

The Pandora Billionaire honor came the same week that the album’s first radio single, “Better Than You,” a powerhouse duet with rising star Annie Bosko, broke into the Top 40 on the Mediabase country charts.

The steamy, emotionally charged “Better Than You” entered the airwaves as a Top 5 Most Added Song at US country radio for five consecutive weeks, including one week before the track’s official impact date. Additionally, the duet has been a Top 10 Most Added Song for nine non-consecutive weeks and has earned triple-digit radio adds to-date.

Penned by chart-topping songwriters Derek George (Darius Rucker’s No. 1 “For the First Time”) and John Pierce (Zac Brown’s No. 1 “Sweet Annie”), and produced by George with Mickey Jack Cones (Dustin Lynch, Trace Adkins), “Better Than You” is about love at first sight, your last first kiss, and realizing that nothing else could compare with the magic you’ve found in your lover’s arms.

Nichols returns to the road in March with shows in Florida on March 22nd before heading to the Midwest in April.