Beyoncé returns to country music with ‘TEXAS HOLD ‘EM’ and ‘16 CARRIAGES’
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Beyoncé fans are returning their RENAISSANCE-era disco ball cowboy hats to their rustic origins, donning spurs and chaps and, perhaps, stepping to the right in a dive bar or two. The Houston, Texas native, 32-time Grammy Award winner is returning to the south, sharing a sweet taste of her roots with the BeyHive in country-inspired hits “TEXAS HOLD ‘EM” and “16 CARRIAGES.”
During this year’s Super Bowl, Beyoncé surprise-debuted two tracks on the upcoming album, “Act II.” The drop comes two years after her house-themed, Act I album “RENAISSANCE,” which sought to uplift the vibrancy of Black artistry in ballroom culture. Beyoncé began the RENAISSANCE World Tour, which was the highest-grossing tour by any female artist, in May 2023 and finished it that October.
With her versatility, it is no surprise that Beyoncé is once again leaning into country music, transcending the genre and its current culture. In fact, she’s always been true to her heritage, having performed crowd-favorite “Irreplaceable” with country duo Sugarland at the 2007 American Music Awards. In her 2016 hit “Formation,” she also sang, “My daddy Alabama, Momma Louisiana/You mix that negro with that Creole make a Texas bama.”
“TEXAS HOLD ‘EM” has an upbeat tempo from fiddles and its accompanying hollers delivered with an angelic southern twang. The song’s beginning banjo notes, which prepares the audience for the incoming genre change, came from Grammy-winning Black folk musician Rhiannon Giddens.
“16 CARRIAGES” is a much more personal ballad, candidly spotlighting Beyoncé’s obstacles in life. She sings about perseverance and prioritizing herself despite hardships.
“Goin’ so hard, gotta choose myself/ Underpaid and overwhelmed/I might cook, clean, but still won’t fold,” she sings.
The track’s consistent percussive beat evokes a feeling of trudging along and fighting forward amid the pain. While the message of “16 CARRIAGES” is delivered through a softer tone, similar truths are preached on “RENAISSANCE” with tracks like “CHURCH GIRL.”
“I’ve been up, I been down/Feel like I move mountains,” she sings. “I’m gon’ let go of this body, I’m gonna love on me/Nobody can judge me but me, I was born free.”
Before the releases of “TEXAS HOLD ‘EM” and “16 CARRIAGES,” Beyoncé used fashion to hint at her country shift. On the RENAISSANCE tour, she wore a disco-ball cowboy hat, inspiring fans to wear their own silver shimmering cowboy hats and boots. Then, at this year’s Grammy Awards, the Houston vocalist channeled her inner cowgirl, donning a white Stetson hat and a checkered, silver-studded leather Louis Vuitton skirt suit from the brand’s western-inspired Fall-Winter 2024 collection designed by Pharrell Williams.
Throughout her career, Beyoncé has explored and fused a plethora of genres from R&B to gospel and everything in between. Her country music resurgence is teachable, encouraging American society to think critically about the genre’s future. She reminds music lovers to recognize, by proof of Black country artists, that the style is intrinsic to Black history in the United States.
However, the understanding of Black people’s impact in country music has yet to be widely acknowledged across the white, male-dominated genre. In 2016, Beyoncé performed her first country hit, “Daddy Lessons,” at the 50th annual Country Music Association Awards. She was accompanied by The Chicks.
The performance did not go without an outcry from the public — reactions emphasizing just how challenging it is for Black artists to enter the category and be elevated within it. Others found issues with the performance, arguing that Beyoncé did not have a place in the genre because of her activism with the Black Lives Matter movement and policing reform.
At the end of the day, Beyoncé’s presence in country music is a prime example of making and taking space for your voice. Since “Lemonade,” she has portrayed her musical excellence by reclaiming elements of the country music genre. By continuing to experiment with these sounds, she further connects with her Texas ancestry and articulates the breadth of cultures from which the genre is created.
It could not be further from the truth that country is a strictly white genre. Country derives from percussive West African instruments brought to America by way of the slave trade. Enslaved people collectively developed a variety of sounds, including and inspired by traditional field hymns and gospel. Early Black country artists like Charley Pride and newer singers like Mickey Guyton are often overlooked in conversations surrounding artists who have made a remarkable presence.
Black people come from the same “country” that is referenced and revered in nearly every country music song streamed on the radio. Country music is a keepsake for Black people to both learn and remember where their culture began, from the fields to trail rides.
For Beyoncé, a musical powerhouse, to create songs like “TEXAS HOLD ‘EM” and “16 CARRIAGES” means dismantling a narrative that country is a space meant solely for whiteness. Country music is Black history, expertise and artistry and Beyoncé teaches us this truth one line dance at a time.
