Beyoncé's not done smashing historic records in country music.
Alongside her No. 1 country hit song "Texas Hold 'Em," the Texas pop star has become the first-ever Black woman to the top of the Billboard's country album charts. "Cowboy Carter" is a behemoth 27-track album that features country icons like Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson and Linda Martell and plenty of genre-bending country acts. Beyoncé said she doesn't classify the album as country but instead as "a 'Beyoncé' album."
While Beyoncé has snagged the title of the first Black woman to be at the top of the country music charts, other Black musicians like Natalie Cole, Gladys Knight, Patti LaBelle, The Pointer Sisters and The Staple Singers on the album "Rhythm Country Blues" topped the country album charts in 1994, Billboard reported.
The Houston native also shared that the album was born over an experience where she did "not feel welcomed" in country music space and "it was very clear that I wasn’t," referring to her 2016 CMA Awards performance with the Chicks of her country song "Daddy Lessons."
Thus, "Cowboy Carter" was created to dive deeper into "the history of country music and studied our rich musical archive," Beyoncé said. Most importantly, the criticisms she faced "when I first entered this genre forced me to propel past the limitations that were put on me."
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