Beyoncé Is the First Black Woman to Top the Country Charts
If there’s two things Beyoncé knows how to do with her eyes closed, it’s “breaking the internet” and making history.
On Tuesday, Billboard announced that our favorite “Alien Superstar” had launched herself to the top of the Hot Country Songs chart with her new single “Texas Hold ‘Em,” making her the first Black woman ever to take the number one spot. With its 19.2 million streams and counting, according to People, Beyoncé dethroned the Zach Bryan and Kacey Musgraves’ duet “I Remember Everything,” which previously sat at number one for 20 weeks. The Renaissance artist’s Houston-inspired single also debuted on the Hot 100 chart, taking the second place slot.
Beyoncé released “Texas Hold ‘Em” and “16 Carriages” in the middle of the Super Bowl earlier this month, stealing the show from ultimate sporting victors, the Kansas City Chiefs. The singer’s sudden pivot into country music was predicted in some corners of the internet, but was otherwise unexpected by her legions of fans — many of whom have admitted they’ve never taken much of a liking to the country genre. Which is understandable given its sordid history of racism and transphobia!
But there’s no order too tall or genre too broken for this Grammy winner. Black women have long been a part of the country music scene and its foundations. Though their history may have been buried and their traditions co-opted, Beyoncé’s foray into the genre only serves to shine a light on the artists who made country and whose flowers are long overdue.
Hope y’all are ready to swing your partners ‘round and ‘round for weeks on end. I think we’ve got quite a bit of line dancing to prepare for in the lead up to this second Renaissance album, and if “Texas Hold ‘Em” is any indication, we’re all about to be willingly brainwashed into longtime country fans.
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