Three years ago, Russell Dickerson was perhaps the hottest thing in country music.

His 2017 debut album, “Yours,” had produced three No. 1 multi-platinum hits.

His 2020 sophomore disc, “Southern Symphony,” continued the stretch with two gold and platinum hits.

A third, self-titled, album gave him another triple-platinum single.

Dickerson’s star seemed to cool in the three years after that, but last year, he came roaring back with his hit “Happen to Me,” his first No. 1 hit in five years, from his fourth album, “Famous Back Home.”

He leaned heavily on that new disc as opening-night headliner on Musikfest’s main Wind Creek Steel Stage at PNC Plaza, playing eight of its 12 songs in a 20-song, 95-minute show.

He even opened with his most recent single, “Worth Your Wild,” and a worthy start it was: a booming radio rock hit, played with his four-man band that was hardly country, with the audience of perhaps 4,000 singing along, showered by confetti.

“Ah, you know we’re getting wild tonight,” Dickerson told the crowd, and he even played a good guitar solo late in the song.

A big element of Dickerson’s success was revealed with the second song, “It’s About Time,” from “Southern Symphony,” a duet with duo Florida Georgia Line.

The song showed that Florida Georgia’s Bro-country style is alive. The style is typified by anthems, drum loops and rap-like cadences.

It went beyond the songs. Dickerson, wearing a sleeveless denim shirt open over a white T-shirt, and denim jeans, also made the required alcohol reference, asking the crowd, “Anybody thirsty here tonight?”

And two songs later, on his second-biggest hit, 2023’s triple-platinum “She Likes It,” Dickerson turned his cap backward and strutted and danced. He did the same on the 2018 double-platinum hit “Blue Tacoma,” on which the crowd loudly sang along.

Even slower songs such as the 2024 lesser hit “Bones” was very Bro-country, though the similar-styled and also-slower “Sippin’ on Top of the World” was less successful, despite the stage offering streams of smoke and video images.

After the very good 2021 gold hit “Home Sweet,” Dickerson noted that the new Musikfest mug from which he was drinking was “the most American mug I’ve ever seen. Happy 250th!” The crowd responded with chants of “U.S.A., U.S.A.!”

None of that is to make a judgment on Bro-country. The audience was deeply engaged, singing loudly along, even on the newer and lesser-known “B.O.A.T.”

Dickerson’s performance was strong throughout the night. He spanned the stage, even singing the slower, sentimental (and excellent) newer song “16 Me” while sitting on the stage steps (with his cap backward again).

He sang with emphasis and emotion on the 2020 double-platinum hit “Love You Like I Used To,” and the crowd loved it, singing loudly along with equal emotion. He contrasted the booming, Coldplay-like 2024 song “What a Life” with the equally good, slower and nostalgic “Ride the Wave.”

Then he sang, really sang, and definitely not Bro-country, alone on acoustic guitar as a sort of late-show “centerpiece” on the 2022 hit “God Gave Me a Girl.” He started his 2018 double-platinum hit “Every Little Thing” the same way before the full band kicked in to finish.

Dickerson proved he can rap, doing a snippet of Fetty Wap’s multiplatinum “Trap Queen” before singing “Boots,” his recent duet with Wap, who appeared on the big screen behind him.

He also showered Bethlehem with love, reacting to the crowd by saying, “This is phenomenal,” noting Philadelphia’s fortune by telling the crowd to sing “like LeBron [James] just came to the Sixers, ya’ll,” and frequent references to Musikfest’s big crowd.

Dickerson closed his main set with the new album’s “Love That I Love You,” again finishing with a guitar solo, then a six-minute “MGNO,” with snippets of Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance with Somebody.”

He took off his denim shirt and climbed the stage scaffolding, then welcomed a big-headed mascot of himself.

For the two-song encore, Dickerson merged his early and more recent career, starting with, of course, his biggest hit, 2017’ “Yours,” which he introduced with another Bethlehem reference, saying it was for “anybody [who] made out behind Molly’s [bar] to this song.”

There’s a reason it was a triple-platinum hit: It pulls at the heartstrings and kindles nostalgia. And Dickerson sang the heck out of it, ending with a long, long note.

He closed with last year’s chart-topper, “Happen to Me,” which incorporates Cyndi Lauper’s song “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” (written by Philly’s Robert Hazard) and another shower of confetti.

It was a show worthy of Dickerson extending his stay at the top of country music.

Opening the night’s show was Bethlehem native Lilly Moss, a rising country singer in her own right, whose 20-minute set of six bluesy rock-country songs proved she bears watching.

Backed by a four-man band, Moss opened strong with a cover of Ashley McBride’s “Rattlesnake Preacher,” and later sang fine covers of Miranda Lambert’s “Fastest Girl in Town” and “Gunpowder and Lead,” and Ella Langley’s “You Make Me Wanna Smoke.”

Her original “Death of Me,” released three weeks ago, showed Moss is unafraid to let go vocally.

Moss pointed out her local connection, telling the audience after the first song, “This is my hometown, ya’ll!” and, later, “It’s the first day of Musikfest, ya’ll. I can’t believe I’m here!”

Before her closing song, her upcoming single “Diggin’ in My Heels,” she recounted how, two years ago, she was at the festival’s Marin Morris concert and opened a fortune cookie that presaged her music career.

Moss performs on Musikfest’s Main Street stage at 1:30 p.m. Aug. 2 and 8 p.m. Aug. 6, on the Lagerplatz stage.

Also opening for Dickerson was Blake Proehl, who, backed by a drummer and guitarist, offered a more pop set. His song “She Got It” fit his boy-band voice, with a catchy radio presentation.