Beyoncé continues to be a trailblazer as she became the first Black woman to have a No. 1 hit country song.
Billboard revealed on Tuesday, February 20, that Beyoncé’s new single “Texas Hold ‘Em” reached the top of the Hot Country List. Her second song “16 Carriages” also made the list in the No. 9 spot. The tracks are currently on the Billboard 100 chart in the 2nd and 38th spot, respectively. Billboard also noted that Beyoncé is the first woman to have a No. 1 song on both Hot Country Songs and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs.
Rolling Stone later reported that Beyoncé is the first Black woman to achieve the top spot on the Hot Country List since its creation in 1958.
Beyoncé debuted her new country music era when she dropped the tracks after announcing her upcoming album, Renaissance Act II, during Super Bowl LVIII earlier this month. Renaissance Act II hits shelves on March 29.
After releasing “Texas Hold ‘Em,” Beyoncé faced some pushback from some country music stations. One station in Oklahoma City denied listeners’ requests to play the song. However, the station walked back the decision after receiving backlash.
“We initially refused to play it in the same manner if someone requested us to play the Rolling Stones on our country station,” general manager Roger Harris said in a statement at the time. “Fact is we play Beyoncé on TWO of our other stations and love her … she is an icon. We just didn’t know about the song … then when we found out about it, we tried to get the song … which we did and we have already played it 3 times on YKC, our country station. We also play her on 105.5, KXFC-FM and KADA-FM 0n 99.3.”
Despite facing pushback from some country music radio stations, many of the genre’s stars and personalities have rallied around Beyoncé. Lainey Wilson shared that she loved having the Grammy winner expand into country music and welcomed her with open arms.
“The more the merrier,” Wilson, 31, told Extra in an interview published on Monday, February 19. “[Country music] is about that storytelling, it’s about making people feel at home. And everybody wants to feel at home. … I love Beyoncé.”
While Beyoncé is best known for her work in R&B, the singer has always had roots in country music as she grew up in Texas. Her mom, Tina Knowles, confessed that both Beyoncé and daughter Solange spent a lot of time embracing “cowboy culture.”
“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,” she wrote via Instagram on Saturday, February 17. “Solange did a whole brilliant album and project based on Black Cowboy Culture. It definitely was a part of our culture growing up.”
