News of her album magnified a wider conversation on the long history of Black artists in country music, and the racist backlash they experience.
Beyonce’s Cowboy Carter is a full-throated ode to her southern roots, a rollicking revue of an album that also deals a vital history lesson on the Black lineage of country music.
The 27-track, highly anticipated record that dropped on Friday is the second act of her Renaissance trilogy, a sonically diverse jamboree flavoured with strings and pedal steel guitar.
But even the powerful artist — who has more Grammy wins than any other artist in the business, ever — has brushed up against the overwhelmingly white, male gatekeepers of country music who have long dictated the genre’s perceived boundaries.