Beyoncé became the first black woman to top Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart when her song “Texas Hold’em” debuted at number one.
In a genre whose relationship with black artists is often controversial, the song was one of several historic achievements on Tuesday when the weekly chart rankings were updated.
“Texas Hold’em,” released alongside the single “16 Carriages” in a surprise album announcement during the Super Bowl, became Beyoncé’s first to top the country charts.
She is also the second artist to debut at No. 1 without a featured artist, after Taylor Swift achieved the feat in 2021 with her re-recordings of “Love Story” and “All Too Well.” She became a female solo artist.
Beyoncé is also the first woman to top both the Hot Country Songs and Hot R&B/Hip-Hip Songs charts since their inception in 1958. She was topped only by Justin Bieber, Billy Ray Cyrus, Ray Charles and Morgan Wallen. Both charts.
The Hot Country Songs chart is a “multimetric” chart that combines music from the United States. Includes sales, streams, and radio airplay, as well as Billboard’s main Hot 100 chart.
Tuesday’s chart reflects the seven days ending February 15th, which means Texas Hold’em, released on February 11th, achieved the slot number in just four days of tracking.
During that time, it was streamed 19.2 million times and downloaded 39,000 times in the U.S., according to entertainment data company Luminate. The song debuted at No. 2 on the Hot 100 chart, while the superstar’s other new song, “16 Carriages,” debuted at No. 38 on the Hot 100 chart and No. 9 on Hot Country Songs. Did.
Both singles will be included in the second part of Beyoncé’s Renaissance trilogy, which will be released on March 29th.
The country chart achievement comes after last week’s online firestorm over Texas Hold’em’s classification as a country track.
A country radio station in Oklahoma initially rejected Beyoncé’s request for a new single, but changed its tune after a viral campaign on X (formerly known as Twitter).
The station said Beyoncé’s label had not yet provided the file for the song at the time of the request. According to Billboard, Texas Hold’em has officially been promoted to country radio.
The song became Beyoncé’s first to appear on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart, debuting at number 54. Unlike Hot Country Songs, Country Airplay only measures radio play.
The relationship between country music and black artists is often controversial. In a high-profile example from 2019, rapper Lil Nas deleted from.
Chart editors argued that it wasn’t country enough, despite the banjo instrumentation and lyrical content about horseback riding.
“While ‘Old Town Road’ incorporates references to country and cowboy imagery, the current version does not incorporate enough elements of today’s country music to chart,” Billboard said. I wrote it at the time.
In 2016, Beyoncé’s country-inspired track “Daddy Lessons” was released. was denied The Recording Academy’s Country Music Committee has made this work ineligible for a Country Grammy Award.
She later performed the song in a surprise performance with the Dixie Chicks at the Country Music Association awards ceremony, sparking a new wave in the music world. discourse About the politics and ambiguous classification of country music.
