Never has a country album been so eagerly awaited around the world: with Cowboy Carter, Beyoncé, global music star, pays homage to her Texan roots in 27 tracks which also give pride of place to dance, soul and hip-hop. Second act of his Renaissance musical trilogy, the album, whose release was announced during the Super Bowl, was posted online around midnight on the night of Thursday to Friday, depending on the time zone of each country.
Known worldwide for her calibrated choreographies as well as for her unique pop, R’n’B and hip-hop style, from the hits Crazy in Love to Formation, Beyoncé delivers with Cowboy Carter a personal ode to country. At 42, the native of Texas, in the south of the United States, has made a lot of noise since the announcement of an album dedicated to this musical genre, very popular in the United States and often associated with white artists, despite its origins. African-Americans.
The banjo, a favorite instrument of the genre, finds its roots among black slaves in the Caribbean in the 17th century. It was later taken over by the white populations of Appalachia, in the United States.
Texas Hold’Em, the first single from the album, is a collaboration with Rhiannon Giddens, an artist who brings the African-American roots of country to the forefront, on both banjo and viola. With this title, Beyoncé became at the end of February the first black singer to rank a hit at the top of the country charts.
She covers, among others, the classic Jolene, by absolute country star Dolly Parton, as well as Blackbird, by Paul McCartney, a song from the 1960s about nine black teenagers who became icons of the civil rights movement by integrating a high school reserved for white students, during the era of segregation in the South of the United States.
Musical controversies
Since the days of Destiny’s Child, the cult R’n’B girl group of the 1990s and 2000s, Beyoncé, aka “Queen Bey”, has become a global star. Singer, author, dancer, producer, actress, she is today the most successful artist in the history of the Grammy Awards, awards of the American music industry.
Paradoxically, out of her 32 awards, she has never won best album. A controversy over the lack of diversity that her husband, rapper Jay-Z (real name: Shawn Carter), rekindled by criticizing the music industry during the last Grammy Awards in February.
In 2019, one of the songs of the year, Old Town Road, by rapper Lil Nas elements of this style. Another controversy.
In recent years, black artists have still managed to break into country music, such as Tanner Adell, Willie Jones, Mickey Guyton and Brittney Spencer. A sign of this late recognition, Tracy Chapman’s famous song Fast Car, released in 1988, received the 2023 Best Song award at the Country Music Awards, but that was after white singer Luke Combs covered it.
