Dolly reigns

 Dolly reigns

Shannon May

Jolene may have won the battle, but Dolly has won the war. According to a survey by UMass Lowell and YouGov, Dolly Parton is by far the most popular person among a group of 20 major global figures: 70% of Americans have a favorable opinion of the 11-time Grammy winner, while only 5% have an unfavorable impression, giving Parton a net favorability of 65%. Barack Obama and Volodymyr Zelensky placed a distant second and third, with 14% and 12% net favorability, respectively. The Guardian attributes Parton’s popularity in part to staying out of politics. “I’ve got as many Republican fans as Democrats, and I don’t want to make any of them mad at me,” she said in 2017.