2024-03-27 11:40:35
Beyoncé appears on a white horse and wearing a cowboy hat for her new album “Cowboy Carter” – but the superstar also makes it clear: “This is not a country album. This is a Beyoncé album.”
New York.
The announcement itself was surprising. In a commercial during the Super Bowl telecast in February, superstar Beyoncé revealed that she was releasing a new album. At the same time, references to “Act II”, the date “March 29” – and music from two new songs appeared on their website: “Texas Hold ‘Em” and “16 Carriages”. Is R&B star “Queen Bey” making country music now? For many fans, this was even more surprising than the album announcement itself.
“Cowboy Carter” will be released on Friday (March 29th) – the successor to her album “Renaissance” released in 2022 and the eighth solo studio album by Beyoncéwho has long been one of the most successful musicians in the world with tens of millions of albums sold.
Number one in the country charts
Die Single “Texas Hold ‘Em” has already made it to the top of the US country charts “Hot Country Songs” – as the first solo single by a black woman in the history of this music survey. The 42-year-old, who is married to the musician Jay-Z and has three children, commented on Instagram that she felt honored – but also made it clear: “My hope is that in the future the reference to an artist’s ancestry will be made clear will be irrelevant in terms of publishing genres of music.”
Because, Beyoncé continues: “This is not a country album. This is a Beyoncé album.” She has been working on it for five years. “It was born out of an experience I had years ago where I didn’t feel welcome… and it was clear that I wasn’t.”
According to US media reports, this could be a performance by Beyoncé and the Dixie Chicks at the Country Music Awards 2016, which was sharply criticized and sometimes racially abused by many spectators. The organizers deleted a social media post about the performance instead of defending the artists.
Expand boundaries
“Because of this experience, I delved deeper into the history of country music and studied our rich musical archive,” Beyoncé now writes. With the album she wanted to overcome barriers, challenge herself and expand and merge the boundaries of music genres, writes Beyoncé, who had already celebrated global success with the band Destiny’s Child before her solo career – and shows herself in photos on a white horse , with white cowboy hat, white boots and suit and flag in the US national colors white, blue and red.
In the United States, country is still considered a genre of music that is primarily made and listened to by white men. Non-white artists still have a difficult time in the genre – although many of them have had a decisive influence on country, such as Charley Pride. Superstars like Ray Charles, Tina Turner, Lionel Richie and, most recently, Lil Nas X have also experimented with the genre.
Singer Mickey Guyton recently addressed the challenges in the song “Black Like Me” – and was the first black artist to be nominated for a Grammy in the “Best Country Solo Performance” category.
Despite the album announcement, the established country scene based in Nashville, Tennessee, has shown relatively little interest in Beyoncé, and the classic country radio stations also paid little attention to the two singles. But, the New York Times just emphasized again: “Beyoncé doesn’t make ‘Cowboy Carter’ to infiltrate country, but as an artistic and political statement.”
The album is “an extension of the superstar’s search for how black creativity drives all corners of popular music. It embraces the music, not the industry.” (dpa)
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