Beyoncé has become the first Black woman to top Billboardâs Hot Country Songs chart, after her track Texas Hold âEm debuted at No 1.
In a genre whose relationship to Black artists has often proved controversial, the track marked one of several historical achievements when weekly chart rankings refreshed on Tuesday.
Texas Hold âEm â released simultaneously with the single 16 Carriages in a surprise album announcement during the Super Bowl â is Beyoncéâs first time topping the country charts.
It has also made her the second solo female artist â with no accompanying featured artists â to debut at No 1, after Taylor Swift achieved the feat in 2021 with her re-recordings of Love Story and All Too Well.
Beyoncé is also the first woman to top both the Hot Country Songs and Hot R&B/Hip-Hip Songs charts since the lists began in 1958. Justin Bieber, Billy Ray Cyrus, Ray Charles and Morgan Wallen are the only other artists who have led both charts.
The Hot Country Songs chart is a âmulti-metricâ chart which combines US sales, streams, and radio airplay, much like Billboardâs primary Hot 100 chart.
Tuesdayâs charts reflected the seven days leading up to 15 February â which means Texas Hold âEm, released 11 February, achieved its slots after just four days of tracking.
In that time, it was streamed 19.2m times and downloaded 39,000 times in the US, according to entertainment data company Luminate. It debuted at No. 2 on the Hot 100 chart, whereas the superstarâs other new track 16 Carriages debuted at No. 38 on the Hot 100 and No. 9 on Hot Country Songs.
Both singles will appear on Beyoncéâs second instalment of her Renaissance trilogy, set for release on 29 March.
The country chart achievements come after an online firestorm last week around Texas Hold âEmâs categorisation as a country track.
A country radio station in Oklahoma initially declined to play a request for Beyoncéâs new single, though they later changed their tune after a viral campaign on X, formerly known as Twitter.
The station said that they hadnât yet been served the file for the track from Beyoncéâs label when they received the request. Texas Hold âEm is now officially being promoted to country radio, according to Billboard.
The song has become Beyoncéâs first appearance on Billboardâs Country Airplay chart, where it debuted at No. 54. Unlike Hot Country Songs, Country Airplay measures only radio play.
Country musicâs relationship to Black artists has often sparked debate. In a high-profile example from 2019, rapper Lil Nas Xâs viral country-trap fusion Old Town Road was removed from Billboardâs Hot Country Songs after it topped the chart.
Chart compilers claimed it wasnât country enough â despite its banjo instrumentation and lyrical content about horse riding.
âWhile Old Town Road incorporates references to country and cowboy imagery, it does not embrace enough elements of todayâs country music to chart in its current version,â Billboard wrote at the time.
In 2016, Beyoncéâs heavily country-inspired track Daddy Lessons was rejected by the Recording Academyâs country music committee, making it ineligible for country Grammys.
She later played the song at the Country Music Association awards with the Dixie Chicks in a surprise performance that sparked a fresh round of discourse around country musicâs politics and ambiguous classifications.