Beyoncé’s Country Music Song ‘Texas Hold ‘Em’ Just Gave Her a Ninth Solo Number One
Beyonce’s “Texas Hold ‘Em” has topped Billboard’s Hot 100 chart, the publication announced on Monday, marking the singer’s ninth time atop the chart as a solo artist and the 13th in total when including her songs with Destiny’s Child.
“Texas Hold ‘Em” dethroned Jack Harlow’s “Lovin On Me,” which had spent much of 2024 at Number One — save for Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” at the start of the new year and for the debuts of Ariana Grande’s “Yes, And” and Megan Thee Stallion’s “Hiss.”
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“Texas Hold ‘Em” garnered 29 million streams along with 29,000 sales and 16 million radio impressions, according to Luminate.
Beyoncé last topped the Hot 100 in 2022 with the Renaissance dance-pop single “Break My Soul.” “Texas Hold ‘Em,” along with sister single “16 Carriages,” represents the singer’s deepest foray into country music over her decades-long career. Last week, Beyoncé became the first Black woman in modern music history to top Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart, and “Texas Hold ‘Em” remains atop the chart this week. The song also marked the singer’s debut on the Country Airplay Chart, which tracks radio play. As of this week, the song rose 20 places to 34, per Billboard.
Whether or not country radio stations would embrace the music from a Black artist whose discography is mainly pop and R&B was a significant question when Beyoncé released the two singles during the Super Bowl. Last week, however, “Texas Hold ‘Em” was the most added track on country radio.
Beyoncé’s records on the country charts represent both a landmark for Black women in the genre and a reminder of how white and male country music has historically been. Until last year, when Luke Combs scored a hit covering Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car,” no Black woman had ever been the sole writer on a Number One country song. Bey’s country shift could give more attention to other Black women in country as well: as Billboard reported last week, several other Black women in the genre, including Reyna Roberts, Tanner Adell, and Rhiannon Giddens (who played on “Texas Hold ‘Em”) saw notable bumps in their catalog consumption since Beyoncé’s songs came out.
Elsewhere, Kanye West and Ty Dolla $ign’s Vultures 1 spends a second consecutive week atop Billboard’s Top 200 Albums chart, West’s 11th album to take Number One and Ty’s first. The album’s lead single, “Carnival,” which debuted at Number Three on the Hot 100 last week, now sits at Number 4.
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