21st February, 2024
By Nehru Odeh
Beyonce has become the first black woman to top Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart with Texas Hold ‘Em. The track, a tribute to her roots, soared to number one after the musician released it simultaneously with the single 16 Carriages in a surprise album announcement during the Super Bowl.
Texas Hold ‘Em achieved this feat by dethroning Zach Bryan and Kacey Musgraves’ “I Remember Everything” on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart. “I Remember Everything” had sat at No. 1 for 20 weeks.
The new chart positions, announced on Tuesday, account for the seven days leading up to 15 February. This shows that Beyonce’s song, which was released on 11 February, achieved the number-one slot after just four days of tracking.In that time, it was downloaded 39,000 times and streamed 19.2 million times in the US.
The feat also made her the second solo female artist to have a song go straight in at number one on the country chart – the first being Taylor Swift in 2021 with her re-recording of Love Story and All Too Well.
It also makes Beyonce the first woman to reach number one on both the Hot Country Songs and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs since the lists began in 1958. Ray Charles, Billy Ray Cyrus, Justin Bieber and Morgan Wallen are the only other artists to have achieved this feat.
Both Texas Hold ‘Em and 16 Carriages will feature on Beyonce’s ninth studio album Renaissance Act II, which will be released on 29 March.
Beyoncé surprised fans by releasing “Texas Hold ‘Em” and “16 Carriages” during the Super Bowl, shortly after her ad with Verizon aired and sharing a teaser for her next album, act ii, which is due in March.
She shared a teaser on Instagram that appeared to be inspired by the classic 1984 western Paris, Texas, featuring a group of bystanders in the desert staring at her billboard while a clip of “Texas Hold ‘Em” played in the background.
The full project, which is currently untitled but being referred to as act ii of Renaissance, is set for release March 29. It comes a little over a year and a half after the release of the music icon’s house-inspired record dropped in summer 2022.
Beyonce’s feat is indeed groundbreaking, as black musicians have not had it easy with country music. .An Oklahoma country radio station initially refused to play a request for Texas Hold ‘Em, which sparked a viral campaign on X, formerly Twitter.
In 2019, rapper Lil Nas X’s viral record Old Town Road, which featured country star Billy Ray Cyrus, was removed from Billboard’s country chart after it hit the number one spot. Billboard said the song wasn’t country enough, despite lyrics about horse-riding and banjo instrumentation.
In a statement at the time, Billboard said: “While Old Town Road incorporates references to country and cowboy imagery, it does not embrace enough elements of today’s country music to chart in its current version.”
Beyonce’s 2016 country-inspired track Daddy Lessons from the album Lemonade was also deemed ineligible for the country Grammys by the Recording Academy’s country music committee.