Dolly Parton's music, books and theme park see spikes in interest following her death

By Weston Blasi

Dolly Parton, musician, actor and literacy advocate, died on Tuesday at the age of 80

A fan takes a picture of a mural of Dolly Parton on Aug. 26, 2026, in Costa Mesa, California.

Dolly Parton's music catalog and other parts of her empire are seeing a resurgence of interest following the death of the musical artist and American icon on Aug. 25 at the age of 80.

"After bravely facing a brief battle with cancer, Dolly departed her Earthly life today at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center surrounded by loved ones," her publicist, Marcel Pariseau, said in a statement Tuesday.

Since her death was announced, several of Parton's songs have risen to the top of streaming-platform charts. On Apple Music (AAPL), "Jolene" reached the No. 1 spot, followed by "9 to 5" at No. 2. On Thursday, five of the top 10 songs in the U.S. featured Parton.

"Jolene" had 1.294 million streams on Spotify on Aug. 25, and "9 to 5" had 1.134 million streams, according to Chartdata, which uses data from Billboard. Overall, Parton's music catalog had 19.8 million Spotify streams on Aug. 25, the most in her catalog's history and a 1,300% jump from the day before. "Jolene" is nearing 1 billion lifetime streams on Spotify (SPOT).

Apple Music's top songs on Aug. 27.

Other digital streamers have also seen spikes in interest.

"Over the past 24 hours, streams of Dolly Parton's music have increased 13.5 times globally on Amazon Music. In the U.S., 'Jolene' is currently the most-streamed song on Amazon Music, while '9 to 5' is the third most streamed song," an Amazon (AMZN) spokesperson told MarketWatch. Parton had five of the top 10 most streamed songs on Amazon Music on Wednesday, as well.

On YouTube, the "9 to 5" music video was the most viewed music video on Aug. 25, and it now has more than 107 million streams.

But as many of her fans know, Parton's talents extended far beyond music.

She wrote a number of books, including ones about her life on tour, cookbooks and children's books about her life and about the dangers of bullying.

Since her death, several of those books have emerged as top sellers. As of Friday, five of Parton's books were in the top 20 books sold, according to Amazon's live book charts.

The renewed interest in Parton's books since her death could be seen as poetic, because she was a fierce advocate for literacy. In 1995, she started a nonprofit called Imagination Library, which started out in in her home county in Tennessee and has since expanded to the rest of the U.S. and several other countries, sending free books every month to children from birth to age 5. She said the inspiration was her father, who quit school to work on a farm and struggled to read.

On Aug. 28, "Dolly Parton: An American Original - Special Edition of 20/20" was the No. 1 streamed property on Hulu (DIS).

The Hollywood Reporter reported on Wednesday that Parton had a docuseries and a scripted series in the works at the time of her death, and that her representatives plan to try to get those projects made.

Dollywood, a 165-acre theme park located in Tennessee that is partly owned by the singer's production arm, Dolly Parton Productions, has also seen a boost in interest in the days following her death.

The Dollywood website became overloaded Tuesday and was inaccessible for several hours. "We are currently experiencing abnormally high volume," a message on Dollywood.com said. "We appreciate your patience and hope to be back online shortly." The website was functioning normally as of Thursday, and the park is open.

Representatives for Dollywood did not respond to requests for comment.

Fans gathered at the park in recent days to pay tribute to Parton, dropping off flowers, candles and balloons.

A tribute to Parton was growing Aug. 26 at the entrance to Dollywood.

After Parton's death, numerous musical artists posted tributes to her on social media.

"I will always love her and want to make her proud," Miley Cyrus, who was Parton's goddaughter, wrote on Instagram. "My heart breaks for the world, her family and friends who will miss her deeply. We're in this loss together and we will see her in all of the most beautiful things."

In a statement to several media outlets, Taylor Swift said: "A world without Dolly doesn't feel possible, real, or right."

-Weston Blasi

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08-28-26 1621ET