As expected, Beyoncé’s “Cowboy Carter” hit the top of the Billboard 200 albums chart, but its debut at the top of the country charts has made history.
The 32-time Grammy winner’s foray into the country music genre, released March 29, is the first album by a Black woman to reach No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart, according to Rolling Stone.
With 407,000 equivalent album units — her biggest sales week since 2016’s “Lemonade” — “Cowboy Carter” represents the best sales week for a country album since Taylor Swift’s “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version),” which dropped last July.
The former Destiny’s Child frontwoman claimed ahead of the album’s release that it wasn’t a “country album” but rather a “Beyoncé album.” Still, she tapped country music trailblazers Linda Martell, Dolly Parton and Willie Nelson for contributions, alongside pop sensations Miley Cyrus and Post Malone and lesser-known Black country artists such as Willie Jones, Tanner Addell, Brittney Spencer, Tiera Kennedy, Reyna Roberts and Shaboozey.
Amid controversy about airplay on country music radio stations, the album’s lead single, “Texas Hold ‘Em,” also made history on the Hot Country Songs chart.
“I feel honored to be the first Black woman with the number one single on the Hot Country Songs chart,” she wrote in a detailed statement on March 19.
She continued: “The criticisms I faced when I first entered this genre forced me to propel past the limitations that were put on me.”
Beyonce’s success in the country music format could be seen as vindication after she faced racially-charged backlash in 2016 when she performed “Daddy Lessons” with the Dixie Chicks at the 50th annual CMA Awards.