Tiera Kennedy is loving the success of Beyoncé‘s Country Carter after singing on two songs on the No. 1 album.
Kennedy, 26, collaborated with Brittney Spencer, Reyna Roberts and Tanner Adell on “Blackbiird,” and also provided background vocals on “Tyrant” featuring Dolly Parton.
“It’s absolutely insane,” Kennedy told E! News at the CMT Awards on Sunday, April 7 about working on the historic project. “I’ve seen this happen for other artists but to actually be in it is absolutely crazy.”
Cowboy Carter is the first album by a Black woman ever to reach No. 1 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart. It also debuted at the top of the Billboard 200 chart, selling 407,000 album units during the first week of April. Beyoncé now has the fourth-most No. 1 hits among women, following Taylor Swift (13), Barbra Streisand (11) and Madonna (nine).
“Beyoncé is the biggest artist in the world,” Kennedy continued. “So to get to collaborate with her — that was really special and really cool.”
Kennedy began her solo recording career in 2020, and has opened for country stars Kelsea Ballerini and Danielle Bradbury. She admitted she endured constant frustration, experiencing numerous rejections, until being invited to work on Country Carter.
“For the past couple of years, I was just getting ‘no’ after ‘no’ after ‘no,'” she said. “But I’m so glad that I stuck with it because I finally got a ‘yes’ and it was the biggest ‘yes’ I could have ever gotten.”
Beyoncé previously talked about how Cowboy Carter was inspired by her own sense of rejection. In a March Instagram post, she wrote that Cowboy Carter was “born out of an experience” several years prior where she “did not feel welcomed” by the industry.
She explained that the album has been more than “five years in the making,” seemingly referring to her prior foray into country on 2016’s “Daddy Lessons.” The Recording Academy’s country committee refused to consider the Lemonade hit eligible for Grammy Awards in country categories. Beyoncé teamed up with The Chicks to perform “Daddy Lessons” at the 50th annual Country Music Association Awards, stirring up even more controversy.
As a result, Beyoncé said she did a “deeper dive” into country music’s roots and “rich musical archive.”
Kennedy is hoping the success of Cowboy Carter will pave the way for herself, Spencer, 35, Roberts, 26, Adell, 27, and more Black female country artists. When the album dropped on March 29, she wrote about the significance of Beyoncé’s new music.
“I’ve been in Nashville for almost 8 years chasing this country music dream. There have been a lot of highs and lows along the way and this – being on Beyonce’s album takes the cake,” Kennedy commented on Instagram. “I grew up listening to her music, practicing her runs over and over. Whenever people would ask me “Who’s your dream collab?,” the answer was always Beyonce but it was such a far away dream because BEYONCÉ?!
“I couldn’t be more thankful,” Kennedy continued. “Thank you Beyoncé for shining your light. This album is so important. It will not only change the future of country music but music as a whole and I cannot wait to watch it unfold. Thank you thank you thank you thank you.”
