Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, more commonly known as Beyoncé recently came out with a new album that shocked the world. In 2016, Beyoncé performed at the Country Music Awards (CMAs) alongside the famous country group the Dixie Chicks. She performed her chart topping song, “Daddy Lessons,” which was her first song to be categorized in the country music genre.

For Beyoncé, country music had been nothing foreign to her as she was raised in Texas, but for reasons unknown, the public did not have a positive reaction to her breaking records in the country music field. Very quickly, Beyoncé’s success was hampered by the strong negative opinions of country music fans across the world. She was told to “stick to what she knows” and to “stay out of country music for good”. In 2024, she released “Cowboy Carter”, an full blown country album as a not-so discrete nod to the CMAs and her negative experience in 2016.

“Cowboy Carter” has now spent two consecutive weeks as number one on the Billboard Top 200 chart and has recorded over 133 million streams and 20,500 copies sold. Beyoncé has multiple featured artists on the album, such as Miley Cyrus, Post Malone, Linda Martell, Willie Nelson, and the country music legend Dolly Parton. The most popular song on the album is the studio single, Texas Hold ‘Em, which has reached almost 300 million streams on Spotify alone. Another listener favorite is Beyoncé’s altered rendition of Dolly Parton’s country classic, Jolene. Overall, Beyoncé knew that despite being discriminated against and being barred from the country music genre, she would be able to top its charts whenever she felt like it. In 2024, she proved that, and she says she will continue to produce music across all genres, as all artists should have the freedom to do.