Beyoncé continues to make history with her new single “Texas Hold ‘Em” charting the country music charts at No. 1, becoming the first Black woman to do so.
“Texas Hold ‘Em” and companion “16 Carriages” were released on Feb. 11 as a surprise at the 2024 Super Bowl after her Verizon commercial.
The single “Texas Hold ‘Em” debuted at No.1 for country music charts and No. 2 for the all-genre Hot 100. This became yet another historic accomplishment for Beyoncé.
With the songs’ drops came her announcement of the new album Act II, a sequel to Renaissance, which was released in 2022.
The album will be completely in the country genre, much to the surprise of fans. Renaissance is a R&B/Soul mix, so country is quite the switch.
Fans were quick to comment on these releases. One Beyhive member highlighted Beyoncé’s reclamation of genres “that started with Black culture” within her music.
“Texas Hold ‘Em” quickly went viral online, with now over 196K videos on TikTok alone with one creator remarking how “if Beyoncé is country, we are country.”
The song trended as people jokingly demonstrated their best line dancing skills in an attempt to support Beyoncé’s switch.
With its two-step beat and banjo instrumentals by Rhiannon Giddens, the song is definitely overtly country.
But that doesn’t mean all is fine and well within the country music community when it comes to accepting Beyoncé’s new work within the genre.
The album came not only as a surprise to the fans but also to the country community as a whole who had no prior notice of the drops.
Currently, many country radio stations are still refusing to play the singles, which a fan pointed out in a now-viral tweet.
In an exchange of emails, local country music station KYKC told X user @jussatto that they “do not play Beyoncé on KYKC as we are a country music station.”
Justin called the radio out online stating, “This station needs to be held accountable for their blatant racism and discrimination against Beyoncé.”
While the issue has been resolved, it certainly isn’t an isolated incident in relation to Beyoncé within the country genre.
Unfortunately, this doesn’t come as a surprise, as the genre has been dominated by white artists and racist undertones. But with Beyoncé’s fame and talent, one can only hope that this perception of the genre will quickly change.
It may be different for Beyoncé to dabble in this genre and difficult to digest, but it will definitely leave a lasting impact on the genre, hopefully for the better.
Country legend Dolly Parton stepped in and praised Beyoncé for her success on the charts with an Instagram post on Thursday.
“I’m a big fan of Beyoncé and very excited that she’s done a country album,” Parton wrote. “Congratulations on your Billboard Hot Country number one single.”
Beyoncé is a continually groundbreaking artist, and this album will certainly be no different.
Renaissance: Act II is set to release on March 29.
