Well, it’s official: Cowboy Carter has debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart. It’s the best Billboard debut of the year so far and Beyonce’s eighth number one album. Queen B has also become the first Black woman to have a number one album on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart. Meanwhile, Spotify has already said that it’s the “most-streamed album in a single day in 2024 so far,” too. That sound you’re hearing right now? That’s the sound of John Schenider and all of the racist country music fans crying into their Coors Lights.
“Cowboy Carter,” which dropped on March 29, debuted with 407,000 equivalent album units earned in the United States in the week ending April 4, according to Billboard and music industry data provider Luminate.
It is the best debut of 2024 so far and also the biggest since Taylor Swift dropped “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” in November 2023, Billboard said.
“Cowboy Carter” is a rowdy, wide-ranging homage to Beyonce’s southern heritage and features a constellation of music stars, from country legends Dolly Parton and Willie Nelson to current hitmakers Miley Cyrus and Post Malone.
Parton introduces the album’s take on “Jolene,” drawing parallels between her own original tale of a lover fearing betrayal with Beyonce’s personalized version, and appears with Nelson as radio hosts of a fictional broadcast.
The album, which has been lauded by critics, was already the “most-streamed album in a single day in 2024 so far” on Spotify.
Nashville’s gatekeepers have long tried to promote a rigid view of country music that is overwhelmingly white and male. But Beyonce shatters that notion, taking listeners through country’s evolution from African American spirituals and fiddle tunes.
She dropped the album’s first two singles, “Texas Hold ‘Em” and “16 Carriages” during the Super Bowl in February and announced the full album’s release date.
She also Paul McCartney’s Beatles song “Blackbiird,” stylized with the double-i spelling to match “Act II.”
“I think she does a magnificent version of it and it reinforces the civil rights message that inspired me to write the song in the first place,” McCartney said in a statement when the album debuted.
Beyonce previously topped the Billboard charts with “Dangerously in Love” (2003), “B’Day” (2006), “I Am… Sasha Fierce” (2008), “4” (2011), “Beyonce” (2013), “Lemonade” (2016) and “Renaissance” (2022).
The only women with more number ones are Swift, Barbra Streisand and Madonna, according to Billboard.
This is, of course, really awesome and very well-deserved. Cowboy Carter is a great album. It better finally win Beyonce her long overdue Grammy for Album of the Year. Like most people, my favorite song is “II Most Wanted.” I’ve always liked Miley’s voice and they really do sound so gorgeous together. I do have one slight problem, though. I keep mis-singing the lyrics as “I’ll be your backseat driver…” I did it once as a joke and then the joke was on me because now I can’t get it out of my head. I also think “YA YA” is really fun and get chills whenever I hear “Ameriican Requiem.” Love that she included those four female country music artists on “Blackbiird” and am surprisingly neutral on the updated “Jolene,” considering how much I love the original.
Anyway, first we had Luke Combs’ cover of “Fast Car” making Tracy Chapman the first Black woman to have a #1 song on the country music charts and to win a Country Music Award for Song of the Year. Now, we have Beyonce becoming the first Black woman to have a top country music album. We know Beyonce made a country album because she felt unwelcome at the CMAs in 2016. Talk about FAFO. I really hope this opens a door for new country music listeners to flood the market, giving a proper fanbase to more Black country artists and propelling them upward. That would be the perfect ending.
photos via B4859 / Avalon and Instagram