20 Cigarettes (song)
{{Short description|2025 song by Morgan Wallen}}
{{Infobox song
| name = 20 Cigarettes
| type = song
| artist = Morgan Wallen
| album = I'm the Problem
| released = May 16, 2025
| recorded =
| genre = Country pop
| length = 2:40
| label = {{hlist|Big Loud|Republic|Mercury}}
| writer = {{hlist|Blake Pendergrass|Chase McGill|Josh Miller|Chris LaCorte}}
| producer = Joey Moi
| misc = {{External music video|1={{YouTube|IV3ESXbcvag|"20 Cigarettes"}}|header=Lyric video|type=song}}
}}
"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.
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.{{cite web |last1=Innes |first1=Daisy |title='20 Cigarettes' by Morgan Wallen - Lyrics and Meaning |url=https://holler.country/news/general/20-cigarettes-by-morgan-wallen-lyrics-and-meaning/ |website=Holler |access-date=May 28, 2025 |date=May 16, 2025}} 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.{{cite web |last1=Newman |first1=Melinda |last2=Nicholson |first2=Jessica |title=Morgan Wallen’s ‘I’m the Problem’: All 37 Tracks Ranked |url=https://www.billboard.com/lists/morgan-wallen-im-the-problem-albm-review-songs-ranked/ |website=Billboard |access-date=May 28, 2025 |date=May 16, 2025}} 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. They have sex in the truck bed and share their last cigarette, before the woman later disappears.
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". 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.'"{{Cite web |title=Morgan Wallen Loses Sight of His Own Idiosyncrasies on I’m The Problem |url=https://www.pastemagazine.com/music/morgan-wallen/morgan-wallen-im-the-problem-album-review |access-date=May 28, 2025 |website=Paste |language=en-US}}
Charts
| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
|+ Chart performance for "20 Cigarettes" ! scope="col"| Chart (2025) ! scope="col"| Peak |
| {{single chart|Canada|33|artist=Morgan Wallen|rowheader=true|access-date=May 28, 2025}} |
| {{single chart|Billboardglobal200|60|artist=Morgan Wallen|rowheader=true|access-date=May 28, 2025}} |
| {{single chart|Billboardhot100|20|artist=Morgan Wallen|rowheader=true|access-date=May 28, 2025}} |
| {{single chart|Billboardcountrysongs|8|artist=Morgan Wallen|rowheader=true|access-date=May 28, 2025}} |