Beyoncé‘s new song Texas Hold ‘Em debuted in the top spot of Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart on Tuesday (Wednesday AEDT), the US chart publication announced.
The singer’s other new country song, 16 Carriages, came in at No.9 on the chart.
Wit her first-ever No.1 single on the country charts, Beyoncé becomes the only solo woman with no accompanying artists to achieve the feat apart from Taylor Swift, whose songs Love Story (Taylor’s Version) and All Too Well (Taylor’s Version) hit No.1 in 2021, according to Billboard.
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Making the title even more historic is that Beyoncé has become the first Black woman to reach the No.1 spot on the country music chart.
She is also the first woman to have topped both the Hot Country and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs charts since the lists began in 1958. Morgan Wallen, Justin Bieber, Billy Ray Cyrus and Ray Charles are the only other artists to have reached No.1 on both charts.
Both 16 Carriages and Texas Hold ‘Em were released on February 11 after Beyoncé teased the release of new music in a surprise Super Bowl ad for Verizon, accompanied with eye-popping visualiser videos on YouTube.
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The ad spot, titled Can’t B Broken, featured Veep actor Tony Hale challenging Beyoncé to break the cellular service company’s 5G capabilities, and she accepted the challenge in glorious fashion.
At the very end of the spot, the star is heard saying, “Ok, they ready. Drop the new music”, after she is seen going through various outlandish attempts to “break” Verizon’s network.
Moments later on her official website, the Grammy winner and Texas native posted a clip of Texas Hold ‘Em and full versions of both songs were then released on music streaming platforms, along with the announcement that her eighth solo studio album, Renaissance Act II, would be released on March 29.
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Beyoncé’s illustrative cowgirl-inspired fashion choices at recent appearances had offered clues of the her next sonic phase, the reality of which marks an exciting development in the music industry as a whole.
While the singer’s country music era may come as a surprise to many who are still dancing and singing along to her more disco-centric 2022 album, Renaissance, Beyoncé loyalists – known as the Beyhive – have come to expect change and evolution from their Queen Bey.
https://twitter.com/Verizon/status/1756861090107973830