Dolly Parton tops the list of international figures in a preference poll in the United States | Dolly Parton

For the American people, the feeling expressed by Dolly Parton in her classic 1974 country music chart-topping song “I Will Always Love You” is clearly mutual.

A poll of Americans on more than 20 prominent global figures found that the 11-time Grammy Award winner and philanthropist left her closest rivals – Barack Obama and Volodymyr Zelensky – in the dust by more than 50 percentage points.

Of the 1,000 people surveyed by the University of Massachusetts and market research firm YouGov before April, 70% had a favorable impression of Parton, an 11-time Grammy Award winner. Only 5% had a negative impression of her, giving her a net advantage of 65%.

Obama, who served as president of the United States from 2009 to 2017, received the second highest approval rating in the poll, at 14%. It received 50% support and 36% no preference among those surveyed.

Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, who has been defending himself from invading Russian forces since February 2022, rounded out the poll’s metaphorical podium with a net majority of 12%. He reached this number after 35% of those surveyed reported that they had a favorable opinion of him, and 22% indicated an unfavorable view of him.

Barton and Obama were the only public figures in the poll about whom at least half of respondents had a favorable opinion.

The only other US president in the poll with a net advantage was George W. Bush (5%), comfortably ahead of Donald Trump (-18%) and Joe Biden (-19%). Clearly comparing the Grammy Award winner to Parton, Taylor Swift has a net positive rating of 3%.

Russian President Vladimir Putin landed on the exact opposite end of the spectrum as Barton, with a net advantage of -65.

Besides Parton’s nearly seven-decade music career and her acting in films like the critically acclaimed 9 to 5, one factor in her over-performance in the UMass/YouGov poll is almost certainly her prolific philanthropy.

The Dollywood Foundation’s Imagination Library has donated more than 270 million books to children under the age of five across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Australia.

Among other acts of generosity, she donated $1 million to Vanderbilt University Medical Center in her home state of Tennessee to aid efforts that culminated in the Moderna vaccine that helped end the COVID-19 pandemic.

She has also given Vanderbilt money for research into infectious diseases in children, given more than $12 million to families who lost their homes to the 2016 Tennessee wildfires, received the prestigious Carnegie Medal for Philanthropy in 2022, and Time magazine recognized her as one of its most influential philanthropists in 2025.

“I just give from my heart,” Barton said as she received the Carnegie Medal. “I just see a need, and if I can meet it, I will.”