Beyonce, an African-American pop star, releases her first country album, a music genre traditionally associated with white, male performers

The singer Beyonce, a star of pop and R&B music, is releasing her first country album, inspired by her home state of Texas, and which highlights the African-American influence in this popular music genre, which is appreciated by people with very conservative views, informs AFP , taken over by Agerpres.

The African-American singer, who is also an actress and businesswoman, will release the album “Cowboy Carter”, the second opus of her “Renaissance” trilogy, at midnight from Thursday to Friday.

Born in the city of Houston to a mother originally from Louisiana and a father originally from Alabama, Beyonce, 42, became at the end of February – just before her album was released – the first black singer to succeed to place a single on the country chart, a genre of music that is very popular in the United States and is traditionally associated with white and male performers.

Following the success of his songs “Texas Hold ‘Em,” a banjo-driven song, and “16 Carriages,” a Super Bowl single released on Feb. 11, black country artists are hoping to benefit in turn from greater media coverage.

From her first female gospel and R&B group, Destiny’s Child, to her 2016 hit “Daddy Lessons,” Beyonce, wife of New York rapper and businessman Jay-Z (Shawn Corey Carter), has promoted her native South and genre influence country on his music and style.

White conservative musicians

This musical genre has always marked the activity of the American singer, nicknamed “Queen Bey” and whose worldwide triumph shakes the traditions of country music, which until now was more associated with white and conservative musicians.

According to music historians, the banjo, a basic instrument of the country, bluegrass and folk genres, has its origins in the Caribbean Sea area in the 17th century, being used at that time by slaves deported from Africa to America. Brought to the eastern United States, the banjo was taken up by the white populations of the Appalachian Mountains region in the following centuries.

Black country music has always existed, but black musicians have been kept away from this genre of music.

Singer, lyricist, dancer, producer and actress, Beyonce is currently the most awarded artist in the history of the Grammy Awards, the ultimate awards given by the American music industry.

But, paradoxically, although her track record includes 32 Grammy awards, Beyonce has never won the trophy awarded in the “best album” category. This fact generated a controversy about the lack of diversity, which her husband, Jay-Z, refueled when he criticized the American music industry at the 2024 Grammy Awards gala on February 5.

Beyonce was the victim of racist remarks in 2016 after she performed the country song “Daddy Lessons” at that year’s Country Music Awards.

“The criticism I received when I got into (country music) forced me to push my own limits,” she recently wrote on Instagram. This new album “is the result of the challenges I set for myself and the time I took to twist and mix genres for this record,” added Beyonce.

In 2019, one of that year’s songs, Lil Nas X’s hip-hop and country-tinged “Old Town Road,” was officially pulled from Billboard’s country charts for not having enough specific elements. this musical genre. The decision sparked new controversies.

“Pure White Country”

“As soon as a black artist releases a country song, the value judgments, comments and criticisms come in large numbers,” folk and blues singer Rhiannon Giddens, featured in the vocal score of the song “Texas Hold,” told the British daily The Guardian Em”.

She denounced “people who try to preserve the nostalgia of a pure white tradition (of country music) that, in fact, never existed.”

In recent years, certain black artists have still managed to make a name for themselves in the country industry, such as Mickey Guyton and Brittney Spencer.

In a sign of late recognition, Tracy Chapman’s famous 1988 folk-country single “Fast Car” won the 2023 Country Music Awards song of the year, but only after it was covered by white singer Luke Combs.

For Charles Hughes, the author of the book “Country Soul: Making Music and Making Race in the American South”, Beyonce’s country period represents “a claim of part of her musical identity and her roots in Houston”, the cosmopolitan metropolis of Texas.

For now, “the white-dominated music and country music industry is asking black and mixed-race artists to demonstrate sincerity and good faith,” added the same analyst.

Over the past 15 years, Beyonce has “really moved toward her Texas roots,” insisted Charles Hughes, which “has caused hostility from people who say, ‘Oh, she can’t sing country.'”