Mickey Guyton hopes Beyonce can inspire change for black artists in the country music genre.
The Grammy-winning star recently released ‘Cowboy Carter’, which has been widely labelled as a country album, and Mickey has now suggested that the record could have a huge, long-lasting impact on the genre.
The 40-year-old star told the New York Post newspaper’s Page Six column: “I think that a lot of DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) boards are closing, and … that’s across all the entertainment industry. So, I hope her doing this continues the conversation. And there’s a lot of excitement about it, which there should be, and this amazing album that she’s written. So I hope it stays.”
Mickey has always been open and honest about the issues she’s faced as a black artist in the country genre.
And in recent months, various music stars have voiced their support for Beyonce’s country music, including Carlene Carter, who thinks the genre is “lucky” to have her.
Speaking to ‘Entertainment Tonight’, Carlene explained: “I loved that she came out with her name as Carter because she’s married to Jay-Z, and I thought, she’s from Texas, she wanted to make a country record, nobody should give her any poo poo about it, you know? But they did and I was like, ‘OK, y’all can just shut the hell up because she is Beyonce and we are lucky to have her even want to be in the vicinity of us.'”
Carlene also observed that country music is constantly evolving.
She said: “It may not fit the categories of what people think country is [but] let me tell you, I’ve been around a long time and country has changed constantly.
“It changes constantly, and it’s gone from where she is at to where I’ve been to where my mother’s been to my grandmother [and] all the way back again to somebody else that’s gonna follow Beyonce. It’s always gonna be there, so that’s what country is.”