Beyoncé makes history as first Black woman to top country charts
(CNN) — Beyoncé may have proclaimed that her latest project “ain’t a country album,” but someone forgot to tell the charts that.
The superstar has made history as the first Black woman to come in at No. 1 on the Top Country Albums chart with her “Act II: Cowboy Carter,” according to Billboard.
The new collection also tops the Billboard 200 Albums chart, marking Beyoncé’s eighth time doing so. In February, she also made history when one of the debut singles from the album, “Texas Hold ‘Em,” captured the top spot on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart.
The accomplishment comes at a time where there has been debate over the fact that Beyoncé herself is not a country music artist. While her newest album is genre defying, as it blends pop, country, R&B, zydeco and other sounds, Bey definitely has the receipts to claim country music.
She grew up in Houston, Texas, which has long had a thriving country music scene. Beyoncé also has family roots in the American South. As she sings in her hit “Formation,” her “Daddy, Alabama/Mama, Louisiana,” her father, Mathew Knowles, was born in Gadsden, Alabama, while her mother, Tina Knowles, hails from Galveston, Texas. Her extended family is from Louisiana.
If the argument is made that Bey lacks the country music pedigree, how about two of the genre’s biggest stars?
On Sunday night, Keith Urban, a native of Australia, took to the stage at the 2024 CMT Music Awards to perform his song “Straight Line.” He’s well known to that awards show, which celebrates country music, having won nine of their awards over the years.
That’s not to mention the multiple other Country Music Association awards and Grammys in the country music categories that Urban has won since he first burst onto the scene in 1991.
If that don’t impress you much, there is Shania Twain.
The proclaimed “Queen of Country Pop” is one of the most successful women in country music, having reportedly sold more than 90 million albums worldwide. Twain is from Canada.
Others like Twain’s fellow Canadian k.d. lang have also found acceptance in the country music space. If their music proves country music is not defined by geography, there should be more than enough room enough at the table for Beyoncé, especially given that she has said the “Cowboy Carter” album “was born out of an experience that I had years ago where I did not feel welcomed…and it was very clear that I wasn’t.”
Never mind. It looks like Queen Bey has gone ahead and built her own table.
