Beyonce’s upcoming Act II, her Country music debut, has been met with mixed reactions in Country music. Some country stars welcome Queen Bey while others label her music as pop.
A local country music station in Oklahoma refused to play Beyonce’s new country song “Texas Hold’Em” after a listener made the request. X user @Jussatto shared on Tuesday morning (Feb.13) the email he received with the following tweet that tagged the station’s program director: “I requested Texas Hold ‘Em at my local country radio station (KYKC) and after requesting, I received an email from the radio station stating “We do not play Beyoncé on KYKC as we are a country music station. @BeyLegion.”
The station’s email response, titled “Re: KYKC reply,” reads, “Hi – we do not play Beyonce on KYKC as we are a country music station. Thank you.”
Calling the refusal discrimination, @Jussatto, tweeted: “This station needs to be held accountable for their blatant racism and discrimination against Beyoncé. @1001KYKC This is absolutely ridiculous and racist. You guys should be ashamed. I grew up listening to your station. PLEASE EMAIL THE RADIO STATION TO REQUEST THE SONG. score@scoreradio.net”
KYKC 100.1 FM is a country station owned by The Chickasaw Nation in Byng, Oklahoma.
Of course, the Bey Hive swarmed the tweet with reactions and direct comments towards the S.C.O.R.E. (South Central Oklahoma Radio Enterprises) on social media. Acclaim journalist Taylor Crumpton was one of the first responders to the tweet with comments addressing being a black artist in country music. She wrote:
“Welcome to being a Black person in the country music space. we have been waiting for y’all. wait until you try to go out with your friends to the dance hall and they let everyone in but you. or pat you down until you feel less than human.”
“Black country artists have been experiencing this type of racially charged mistreatment for decades. Black country fans have experienced a disproportionate amount of racial aggressions at country music shows. And Border Patrol uses country music festivals to recruit agents.”
“Don’t try to come in there with some natural hair or a protective style baby. Chile. The stories I could tell.”
Other comments include one user saying, “They about to get it” with three laughing emojis, while another tweets, “They don’t realize by them refusing to play one of the biggest stars on the planet is a huge beg they’re fumbling, Beyoncé can get them millions of new listeners onto country music but they want to be prideful, let em know Beyhive.”
@AriesGroove81 wrote, “Have they listened to the song? Or are they rejecting the request based on you know what?”
“I fear they’re gonna do her like they did Lil Nas X and Nelly,” tweets @misundaztood24. “They basically had to collaborate with white country music artists to even have their songs be considered as country and get airplay… I don’t even want to see the CMAs backlash for Beyonce cause it’s coming”
The original tweet has generated over 600,000 views with 2,000 retweets and 205 comments in less than an hour.
Beyonce announced her country album during the Super Bowl ad with Verizon. After the ad, she released two new Country songs “Texas Hold’Em” and “16 Carriages.” The singles were originally sent out to metadata as “pop songs,” but instantly changed to “country” after being received. Audiomack Co-Founder Brian Zisook explained the importance of genre labeling on X.
He tweets: “For those curious, when a label or distributor delivers a product (song or album) to DSPs, they must include a primary genre. Some include secondary primary genres and sub-genres. For Beyoncé’s two new songs, Columbia listed “Pop” as the primary genre, with ‘Country’ secondary.”
After the change, he added: “Update: Sony has delivered a metadata update, removing “Pop” as the primary genre. The new primary genre for “TEXAS HOLD ‘EM” and “16 CARRIAGES” is now “Country.” Pop was removed.”
Act II is scheduled to be released on March 29 via Parkwood Entertainment/Columbia Records.
Ebro, Peter Rosenberg, and Laura Stylez discussed Beyonce going country on Monday. Check out their reaction, below.