Beyoncé becomes first Black woman to land US Number One country album with ‘Cowboy Carter’
Beyoncé has become the first Black woman to score a Number One country album with ‘Cowboy Carter’ in the US charts.
The music icon’s new country-inspired album has topped Billboard’s Top Country Albums, making history in the process as the first Black woman ever to do so, as revealed yesterday (April 7).
The new record also debuted at Number One, her eighth album to top the Billboard 200 charts.
Billboard revealed that, at 407,000 units, ‘Cowboy Carter’ claimed the biggest week of 2024 so far and the largest since Taylor Swift’s ‘1989 (Taylor’s Version)’ reached 1.653 million units on the November 11, 2023 list back in October.
‘Cowboy Carter’ also scored other achievements including Beyoncé’s biggest week by units since ‘Lemonade’ debuted at Number One with 653,000 units in 2016.
The achievement follows a similar feat back in February when Beyoncé became the first Black woman to reach Number One on the US country chart with her new single ‘Texas Hold ‘Em’.
She also became the second solo female act – with no accompanying featured artists – to debut at Number One, with Swift achieving this in 2021 with her re-recorded versions of ‘Love Story’ and ‘All Too Well’.
Additionally, Beyoncé was announced as the first woman to top both the Hot Country Songs and Hot R&B/Hip-Hip Songs charts since these run-downs began in 1958. The only other artists to have led both charts are Justin Bieber, Billy Ray Cyrus, Ray Charles and Morgan Wallen.
In a five-star review of ‘Cowboy Carter’, NME wrote that Beyoncé’s “country reinvention strikes gold”, adding: “Ms Carter unlocks yet another infinity stone with a heartfelt, expansive take on country music.”
The album has been similarly praised by the star’s music peers, including a glowing statement of support from Paul McCartney after Beyoncé covered ‘Blackbird’.
“I am so happy with @beyonce’s version of my song ‘Blackbird’,” the Beatles star wrote in a statement. “I think she does a magnificent version of it and it reinforces the civil rights message that inspired me to write the song in the first place.”
Before that, Michelle Obama praised ‘Cowboy Carter’ and declared that Beyoncé had “changed the game once again”.
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Hollie Geraghty
NME
