The Queen Bey herself has officially gone country. The superstar dropped her 8th studio album “Cowboy Carter” on Friday, a sprawling 27-track odyssey into Americana and twangy roots music.
Featuring guest appearances from legends like Willie Nelson, Miley Cyrus, and Dolly Parton, the Houston native’s surprising sonic detour is one of the boldest creative pivots of her legendary career thus far.
“I think people are going to be surprised because I don’t think this music is what everyone expects,” Beyoncé said upon the album’s release. “But it’s the best music I’ve ever made.”
The lead single “Texas Hold ‘Em” has already made history, becoming the first country number one hit for a Black female artist on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Its Super Bowl debut last month was the first signal of Beyoncé’s imminent departure into uncharted genre territory.
According to the 42-year-old multiple Grammy winner, the inspiration for “Cowboy Carter” was deeply rooted in her Texas upbringing attending the Houston Rodeo and absorbing the state’s culturally ubiquitous country/western ambiance.
In bringing this unexpected vision to life, Queen Bey was guided by an “organic” ethos, purposely embracing live instrumentation over electronic production to capture an authentic, earthy aesthetic.
“With artificial intelligence and digital filters…I wanted to go back to real instruments, and I used very old ones,” she explained. “All the sounds were so organic and human, everyday things like the wind, snaps and even the sound of birds and chickens.”
While early sales figures are still pending, “Cowboy Carter” has already generated huge buzz and stirred heated debate among both the Beyhive and country music purists.
Back in February, an Oklahoma radio station initially refused to play the album’s lead single before reversing course amid fan backlash. Meanwhile, some of Beyoncé’s celebrity peers like Megan Thee Stallion posted Western-themed photos in anticipation of the genre-blurring project’s arrival.
Only time will tell if “Cowboy Carter” represents a permanent new saddle for Queen Bey or just a creatively fruitful detour for one of music’s most boundary-pushing icons.
