Beyonc\u00e9 can do country \u2013 and so much more… \u201cCowboy Carter\u201d is an impressive gesture of empowerment \u2013 and a wild style rodeo.<\/p>\n
After 32 Grammys and over 200 million records sold, Beyonc\u00e9 is actually going one better. With her country album “Cowboy Carter”, the R’n’B queen from Texas makes a big musical statement.<\/p>\n
Justin Timberlake ignites the comeback rocket, Shakira dances her way back to life and Beyonc\u00e9 shakes up the American country charts: the pop titans from overseas will really let it rip in March 2024. The latter in particular hits the mark with its radical change of style. Instead of over-powdered diva pop, Beyonc\u00e9 is coming around the corner these days with a melodic mixture of R’n’B and country. This mix is an absolute novelty in the history of American hit lists. With the single “Texas Hold ‘Em,” Beyonc\u00e9 becomes the first African-American singer to reach the top of the country charts.<\/p>\n
While the lasso-swinging cowboy hat wearers between Houston and Colorado can’t help but be amazed, Beyonc\u00e9 dances confidently across the line dance floor, swinging her hips. Even two courses below, the 32-time Grammy award winner impresses with her musical finesse and haunting presence. A few gospel backgrounds, the resounding clap of a leather glove on an ungulate’s rump and the unmistakable vibrato of the main protagonist also make the second single “16 Carriages” a special track.<\/p>\n
With the two \u201cCowboy Carter\u201d appetizers, Beyonc\u00e9 proves that she can do more than just pop, R\u2019n\u2019B, soul and hip hop. Of course, those familiar with Knowles’ biography, which is covered in glitter and gold, have long known that the native Texan is not venturing into completely new territories. Beyonc\u00e9 once grew up among cowboys herself and showed in 2016 on stage at the CMA Awards together with the Dixie Chicks that she has everything under control, even surrounded by banjo and guitar sounds. Now the rest of the world should also pay attention and widen their eyes when the singer invites you to a big Yeehaw! party.<\/p>\n
The dramatically introesque “American Requiem” opens the door to a world of sound in which the author makes the genre her own. It doesn’t take a minute before country and Beyonc\u00e9 come together to form a completely new whole. Together with her seven-year-old daughter Rumi, Beyonc\u00e9 sways in the protection of family solidarity, while plucked guitars make their harmonious contribution in the background (“Protector”).<\/p>\n
Beyonc\u00e9 serves up a big meal, even if fans of the worthy Lady Gaga are disappointed that their heroine wasn’t invited to the recording studio in the end. But other high-profile players are present. Beyonc\u00e9 not only brings back beautiful Beatles memories (“Blackbird”), but also brings two true industry legends on board. Beyonc\u00e9 has at least as much fun with Willie Nelson (“Smoke Hour II”, “Just For Fun”) and Dolly Parton (“Dolly P”, “Jolene”) as she does with her superstar colleague Miley Cyrus (“II Most Wanted”).<\/p>\n
No matter whether it’s ballad-like, a bit excited or, as in the lead single, pretty on fire: Whatever Beyonc\u00e9 sets out to do, she succeeds. The singer does not use the typical genre sounds as flashing billboards to advertise herself. Beyonc\u00e9 makes country docile. She creates something new, an exciting mixture of contemporary R’n’B vibes that merge with the characteristic energy of gospel, country and classic singer-songwriter songs to form a fascinating whole. After 27 songs and an eighty-minute high-end performance, you’ll be putting on your cowboy hat behind the loneliest cattle gate, even in the dusty heart of Texas.<\/p>\n
“Cowboy Carter”, singer Beyonc\u00e9’s new album, is a pop masterpiece that will keep us busy for months to come.<\/p>\n
Beyonc\u00e9, the queen of R&B, is finally releasing her country album – and it’s not just America that’s upside down. Is \u201cCowboy Carter\u201d an act of cultural appropriation? Which music is black and which is white? The best of all answers is forgotten in the general excitement.<\/p>\n
It started relatively harmlessly. At the Super Bowl in February, the highlight of the American cultural calendar, there was a showdown between Beyonc\u00e9 and Taylor Swift. While Taylor Swift attracted attention and attention, Beyonc\u00e9 used the video walls to promote her new work, which would be more than just another album. A political issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cRenaissance\u201d was the name of her last album of 2022, and on the cover she sat naked on a horse made of glass. In the next act, \u201cAct II\u201d, initially only the working title was revealed, Beyonc\u00e9, the queen of R&B, also promised a renaissance of her music. She already played two songs at the Super Bowl: “Texas Hold ’em”, a rustic banjo hymn to country life, and “16 Carriages”, her biographical ballad of a redneck girl about the early loss of innocence, mother’s tears, father’s lies and the burden of the household, also a country song. Beyonc\u00e9 grew up in Texas, in Houston.<\/p>\n
When the two songs came out, KYKC, a country station in Byng, Oklahoma, did them the favor of avowedly not playing them: They, KYKC, basically didn’t play anything by Beyonc\u00e9 because they were a country station. With this, KYKC called on the BeyHives, the singer’s internationally networked fans. The BeyHives forced the managing director to his knees with their listener requests and gave him a rueful excuse: He simply didn’t know that Beyonc\u00e9 was now making music that fit the station’s program. He could have also said: Beyonc\u00e9’s music has always been black and what KYKC plays is white.<\/p>\n
Now the album is out in the world. It’s called “Cowboy Carter” and shows Beyonc\u00e9 riding a white horse with a sash around her body like she’s in a parade of old American cavalrymen or like Buffalo Bill as a woman in one of his Wild West shows. Skin colors, genders, everything that drives identity politics in your country seems to be dissolving. She also sings hymns like \u201cAmerican Requiem,\u201d in which she turns to her old friends and explains to them why she is once again changing her name, Cowboy Carter, \u201cAmen.\u201d In \u201cProtector\u201d she asks for protection for herself and her daughter Rumi, for her family and for her people. Like James Brown, the father of soul, she declares that she is proud of herself: \u201cFeel proud of who I am!\u201d She plays, as it should in country music, her bass drum sounds like an empty whiskey barrel.<\/p>\n
The album, \u201cCowboy Carter,\u201d also has a longer history that goes back further than the Super Bowl and the KYKC scandal a few weeks ago. Eight years ago, Beyonc\u00e9 sang about her father in \u201cDaddy’s Lessons,\u201d who made her strong and smart through his toughness, but also wanted to be a cowboy in his own way, with a Bible and a gun, traditional, Texan, male. She even sang \u201cDaddy\u2019s Lessons\u201d at the CMAs, the Country Music Awards in Nashville, with the Dixie Chicks.<\/p>\n
Like Beyonc\u00e9, the Dixie Chicks, three white women, come from Texas. However, they had already fallen out of favor with the country crowd by then because they had publicly criticized the war in the Middle East and apologized for having to share the federal state with George W. Bush. When Beyonc\u00e9 joined in, there were boos in the hall, which the singers on stage visibly enjoyed. Alan Jackson, older, male, white, left the awards ceremony in protest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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