Beyoncé’s pivot to country is meaningful and canny

The 2017 Grammys are most remembered for Adele winning Album Of The Year over Beyoncé—an award even Adele didn’t want to win. But there was another smaller but notable snub that year: the exclusion of “Daddy Lessons” from the Country Song categories. Perhaps the Grammys didn’t feel the song merited a nomination, or perhaps the country music industry viewed Beyoncé as an interloper. Earlier in her Lemonade promotional tour, her performance with the (then-Dixie) Chicks at the CMA Awards was met with racist backlash.

This is all to say that Beyoncé has dabbled in country before, and it’s not unreasonable to think that she might feel like she has something to prove in the arena. During last night’s Super Bowl, she announced Act II, a forthcoming country album, and shared two new tracks. The songs, “Texas Hold ‘Em” and “16 Carriages,” are as musically solid as anything in the past decade of her catalog (even if the cheese factor of the Mumford and Sons-esque stomp-clap beat will turn some off). There’s certainly a sense of defiance to the tracks; Bey knows that she’s inserting herself into a conversation not everyone wants her in.

But Beyoncé is also a canny operator, and the music industry looks a lot different than it did in 2017, or 2014, or 1998, when Destiny’s Child broke through. Country music, for better or worse, dominated the Billboard charts in 2023. And the perception of the genre isn’t as white as it was a decade ago. Luke Combs performed a country-ish cover of “Fast Car” beside Tracy Chapman at this month’s Grammys. Lil Nas X became a household name in 2019 by blending country and hip-hop sensibilities. Beyond that, Lana Del Rey is supposedly releasing a country album on the heels of her “Country Roads (Take Me Home)” cover. Noah Kahan earned a Grammy nom for Best New Artist for bringing that very 2012-sounding stomp-clap beat back. There is a sense that Beyoncé knows which way the wind is blowing, and wants to cash in.

And that’s fine, and it makes sense that Beyoncé would choose this moment to make this move. As a Christian woman from Texas, there’s certainly an argument to be made that she has more claim to these sounds than she has to the queer ballroom aesthetic of Renaissance. But as an artist, Beyoncé is more interesting when she is the wind, rather than just allowing herself to be blown by it. 4 remains a fan-favorite album and contributed some of her most beloved songs because it bucked the EDM trend of the early 2010s and focused on old-school R&B songwriting. Renaissance sounded completely different from what any major pop star was doing in 2022, and it already has imitators. There is no doubt that Act II is going to be polished and sonically cohesive—it’s a Beyoncé joint, after all. But it’s possible for a project to be well made, a defiant reclamation of a maligned genre, and a good business decision. With Beyoncé, you can bet on it being everything.