Beyoncé becomes first Black woman to top Billboard Hot 100 with a country song

Beyoncé has made history, as is her wont. The Grammys’ most-awarded artist ever received yet another distinction on Monday, becoming the first Black woman to top the Billboard Hot 100 chart with a country song. “Texas Hold ’Em,” the chart-topping track in question, is one of the first singles released from Beyoncé’s upcoming album Renaissance: Act II, a country-forward sequel to 2022’s house music-based Renaissance: Act I. This is her ninth solo number-one chart hit.

“Texas Hold ’Em” has been on the ascent since its surprise release during the 2024 Super Bowl. Last week, the track became the first song by a Black woman to top the Billboard Hot Country chart. “I’m a big fan of Beyoncé and very excited that she’s done a country album,” country’s elder stateswoman Dolly Parton wrote on Instagram. (Parton is on record hoping Beyoncé would someday cover her song “Jolene” and give it a second life à la Whitney Huston and “I Will Always Love You.” Parton added, “So congratulations on your Billboard Hot Country number one single. Can’t wait to hear the full album!”

While Parton was willing to welcome Beyoncé with open arms, that isn’t necessarily true of the country establishment as a whole. The fact that she’s the first woman to accomplish these chart records is demonstrative of not just the way country music as a whole has been siloed from pop music, but of the way that Black artists, and particularly Black female artists, have struggled for acceptance in the genre. Beyoncé faced racist backlash for her previous country track, “Daddy Lessons,” after performing it at the Country Music Awards with the Chicks in 2016. Given that history, fans were understandably sensitive to the reception to “Texas Hold ’Em.” One country radio station in Oklahoma came under fire after responding to a fan request with the message, “We do not play Beyonce’ on KYKC as we are a country music station.” (KYKC claimed to Entertainment Weekly that they hadn’t been made aware of the singer’s country pivot, and typically wait to see how a new song charts before adding it to their rotation; the song has since been added.)

Beyoncé broke this specific glass ceiling with the help of a loyal fan base not only streaming the song but running a campaign to request the song on radio stations. Last week, it was the most-added song on country radio and fourth-most added for the year so far (behind songs from Dan + Shay, Jelly Roll, and Tim McGraw), according to Rolling Stone. The song also got a boost from a TikTok dance trend. The song’s popularity and the project’s placing Beyoncé at the center of the country music conversation emphasizes what seems to be the underlying mission of the Renaissance project: despite historical whitewashing, country music is Black music.