Beyoncé makes chart history with country song ‘Texas Hold ‘Em’: ‘Happy Black History Month, y’all!’
Beyoncé is the first Black woman to top the US County charts. (GettyMason Poole/Parkwood Media)
Beyoncé has made Billboard country charts history by becoming the first Black woman to ever score a number one single on the country music section.
Beyoncé’s new country bop “Texas Hold ‘Em”, which was dropped as a surprise during the Super Bowl earlier this month, topped the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart yesterday (20 February).
The 42-year-old “Break My Soul” singer is also the first female artist to have a song hit number one on the Hot Country Songs and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs charts simultaneously, Variety reports.
“Texas Hold ‘Em” is the lead single from her upcoming eighth solo studio album ACT II, set for release on 29 March.
The record is a follow-up to the Texas-born star’s Grammy-winning 2022 album Renaissance, which drew on house and disco influences, and paid homage to queer, Black pioneers of the dance genre.
Following the release of “Texas Hold ‘Em” and accompanying, bluesy single “16 Carriages”, many fans and music industry insiders are anticipating ACT II to be a country album.
While the record is still five weeks from release, it already looks set to be a hit, as “Texas Hold ‘Em” and “16 Carriages” currently sit on Spotify with a combined 50 million plus streams.
Following the release of the country singles, Beyoncé was dragged into a race row after Oklahoma radio station KYKC reportedly refused to play the single. In an email shared on social media, a representative from the station told a fan: “We do not play Beyoncé on KYLC as we are a country music station.”
The fan accused the station of “blatant racism and discrimination” for assuming that Beyoncé couldn’t release country music, before the station U-turned on their decision.
Last week, Roger Harris, a general manager for KYKC, told CBS News that the station had added “Texas Hold ‘Em” to its playlist, and hadn’t originally done so as they were unaware that Beyoncé had released country songs.
Harris added that KYKC doesn’t get “serviced by the big labels like bigger stations do” as it is a small station, and so it didn’t initially have the song to play.
Following the furore, Beyoncé’s mother Tina Knowles hit out at those assuming her daughter didn’t belong in cowboy culture.
“We have always celebrated cowboy culture growing up in Texas. We also always understood that it was not just about it belonging to white culture only,” wrote Knowles on Instagram, sharing a video montage of Beyoncé wearing cowboy hats from across her career.
“In Texas there is a huge Black cowboy culture. Why do you think that my kids have integrated it into their fashion and art since the beginning?
“When people ask why is Beyoncé wearing cowboy hats? It’s really funny, I actually laugh because it’s been there since she was a kid. We went to rodeos every year and my whole family dressed in western fashion… It definitely was a part of our culture growing up.”
ACT II won’t be the first time that the record-smashing artist has branched out into country music, either: her 2016, Grammy-winning album Lemonade features the song “Daddy Lessons”, a song about her relationship with her father, Matthew Knowles.
Beyoncé’s fans are celebrating the iconic musician for making history yet again with “Texas Hold ‘Em”, with one person writing on social media: “I’m really hoping that, as a result of this, all the other Black Country Music musicians are getting more streams and increased airtime for all of their music, too.”
“Happy Black History Month y’all,” wrote a second, as a third simply declared: “YEE-HAW!”
