Beyoncé happened the first black artist to ever top Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart, thanks to her country debut “Texas Hold 'Em,” which also opened at Number Two on the Hot 100, the release was announced on Tuesday.
“Texas Hold 'Em” dethroned Zach Bryan and Kacey Musgraves' “I Remember Everything,” which spent 20 weeks at No. 1 on the country chart and topped the Hot 100 last year. Beyoncé was mostly boosted by strong streams and sales, with “Texas Hold'Em” receiving 19.2 million streams last week along with 39,000 traditional sales (per Luminate) as the Beyhive tried to push the song up the charts. The song also had 4.8 million radio audience impressions.
“16 Carriages,” Beyoncé's other country song, hit Number Nine on Hot Country Songs. It has 10.3 million streams, 14,000 sales and 90,000 radio plays.
After Beyoncé's surprise release of “Texas Hold'Em” and “16 Carriages” last week during the Super Bowl, fans and industry insiders speculated whether the music would be embraced by the mainstream country industry. Beyoncé's record label Columbia announced last week that it has officially pushed “Texas Hold 'Em” to country radio, and the song became the singer's first entry on the Country Airplay chart, debuting at 54.
Beyoncé isn't the first woman of color in country music, as other artists like Mickey Guyton and Brittney Spencer have found success in recent years, while Linda Martell blazed the trail as the first black female solo artist to find success in the genre for 50 years ago. But as the history of charts shows, the country remains overwhelmingly white and overwhelmingly male. Despite a handful of songwriters like Alice Randall and Tayla Parx with Number One co-writers, no black female songwriter had ever written just one Country Number One song until last year, when Luke Combs had a hit with “Fast Car ” by Tracy Chapman.
The fact that the first black woman to top the country chart isn't a traditional country act likely isn't lost on the industry, but Beyoncé's success could bring more attention to the other black country artists who have slogged away in the genre for years. . . Deeper country Beyoncé isn't completely out of left field, though. The Texas native showed a country influence early in her career with Destiny's Child and later as a solo artist on tracks like “Daddy Lessons.”
Beyoncé's country pivot comes at a time when pop is embracing country more than ever, with Morgan Wallen, Bryan, Combs and Jelly Roll topping the charts with significant streaming numbers.
In addition to Beyoncé, on the top 200 album chart, Kanye West and Ty Dolla $ign's Vultures 1 topped the chart despite the album's messy launch that included multiple allegations of unauthorized samples and a brief removal from Apple Music and a change in music distributors after original distributor FUGA said on Friday they were trying to pull the album. The duo's “Carnival” debuted at Number Three on the Hot 100 as well.
With “Texas Hold 'Em” now on the charts, the question becomes how the song will chart next week. Will country radio continue to push the song? Will it hit the Hot 100? Stay tuned.
from our partners at https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-country/beyonce-first-black-woman-number-one-country-song-texas-hold-em-1234970301/