Beyonce fans forced a country music radio station into a dramatic U-turn this week after they refused to play the singer’s new single, Texas Hold ‘Em.
The singer, 42, surprise dropped the country song, also the name of one of the most popular variants of poker, on Sunday during the Super Bowl.
She also announced the release date of eighth studio album, the second of the Renaissance trilogy, Act II which is expected to be completely country-influenced.
Yet taking to X, formerly Twitter, on Tuesday, user Justin McGowan revealed his local country music station, Oklahoma’s 100.1 KYKC, refused to play the track.
He wrote: ‘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 Beyonce on KYKC as we are a country music station.” @BeyLegion.’
Beyonce fans forced a country music radio station into a dramatic U-turn this week after they refused to play the singer’s new single, Texas Hold ‘Em
The singer (pictured on Tuesday) surprise dropped the country song on Sunday during the Super Bowl but one radio station refused to play the artist
On Tuesday, X user Justin McGowan took to the platform to reveal his local country music station, Oklahoma’s 100.1 KYKC, refused to play Texas Hold ‘Em
Justin tagged Beyoncé Legion at the end of his tweet, Beyoncé’s biggest fan club, and wrote a thread accusing the station of racism and encouraging his fellow fans to email the station, too.
A lot of fans happily obliged, namely lawyer Keaton Grant who joked: ‘They got my Oklahoma attorney a** typing an email’, attaching the scathing proof to his tweet via screenshot.
Others flooded Justin’s replies and quote tweets with anger at KYKC and frustration that what was clearly a country song had been disregarded due to Beyoncé’ being known for her work in other genres.
Four hours and 3.2 million impressions later, KYKC took to their X account and wrote: ‘Lots of call coming in for Beyoncé’s Texas Hold ‘Em. It’s coming up in minutes’, attaching an image of the song in the queue.
Beyoncé fans were divided in their response, with some satisfied with the station’s quick action and joking that they should prepare for the rest of the album, and others questioning why it took an internet bashing to get it done.
Country music typically has simple form and folk lyrics. Its harmonies are generally accompanied by instruments such as banjos, fiddles, harmonicas, and many types of guitar (including acoustic, electric, steel, and resonator guitars).
Texas Hold ‘Em is considered up-tempo country pop.
Though it contains elements of soul, it also contains elements of folk and is set to a ‘rapid-plucked’ banjo and acoustic guitar tune.
Justin tagged Beyoncé Legion at the end of his tweet, Beyoncé’s biggest fan club, and wrote a thread accusing the station of racism and encouraging his fellow fans to email the station, too
A lot of fans happily obliged, namely lawyer Keaton Grant who joked: ‘They got my Oklahoma attorney a** typing an email’, attaching the scathing proof to his tweet via screenshot
Fans flooded Justin’s replies and quote tweets with anger at KYKC and frustration that what was clearly a country song had been disregarded due to Beyoncé being known for her work in other genres
It was clear that the ‘Beyhive’ will be ready to fight for Beyoncé’s right to country music, like a lot of them did for Lil Nas X
Fans wrote: ‘Have they listened to the song? Or are they rejecting the request based on you know what?’
‘Beyoncé just released a CONTRY song, your station is about these kind of music, therefore you can and SHOULD play beyoncé! please @1001KYKC could you play “TEXAS HOLD ‘EM” by Beyoncé on your station? Thank you very much.’
‘Is it that they don’t play Beyoncé or they don’t play Black people???’
‘Guess we have to teach them the hard way. again. You’d think they’d learn after the Old Town Road incident and the protest led to it being the biggest billboard song of all time.’
‘This not going to be the first & most definitely not going to be the last. Y’all better get ready to gear up, these white country folks ain’t gon like this war, they bout to play in our faces. Bad enough these music charts STILL calling it “Pop/R&B”.’
‘I can only imagine what other Black country artists they’re not playing.’
‘The racism is already starting this early in. “TEXAS HOLD ’EM” AND “16 CARRIAGES” are COUNTRY SONGS.’
‘Give me one VALID reason why you wouldn’t play these country songs on your country music station???? This is just straight up racism.’
‘Lol the racism we’re about to bear witness to because Beyonce is digging into her country roots is going to be intergalactic.’
In 2019, Lil Nas X and his song, Old Town Road Ft. Billy Ray Cyrus, which was initially refused as country, officially became Billboard’s longest running number one track at 17 weeks, a huge day for Black country music
A representative from KYKC owner (South Central Oklahoma Radio Enterprises (S.C.O.R.E.) told MailOnline: ‘We originally didn’t even know she was releasing a country song.
EXCLUSIVEREAD MORE: Beyoncé is preparing for ‘pushback’ against her new country album
‘Then when we began getting requests for it, we literally didn’t have it. No label or distributor could get it to us. So we literally couldn’t play it.
‘Finally after many calls and emails we finally got the song and added it to not only our country station, KYKC, but it’s also on our Top 40 station KXFC, and our classic hits station, KADA-FM.
‘We have been playing Beyonce’ for 20 years so we are fans.’
Addressing the accusations of racism, they continued: ‘First, we are owned by a minority owned company, so there’s that.
‘Secondly we play music if it’s good. We don’t care who it is or what they look like.
‘Thirdly, we embraced Beyonce’ when she hit the scene decades ago. She has always been a core artist for us, especially on two of our stations.
‘We honestly didn’t know she had dropped a “country” song, plus no distributor sent it to us. As soon as we finally got it, we added it to our Playlist.’
As well as Texas Hold ‘Em, Beyoncé released 16 Carriages ahead of the full album’s release on March 24.
Part II follows Renaissance which was released in July 2022. Beyoncé’s six prior albums are Dangerously in Love (2003), B’Day (2006), I Am… Sasha Fierce (2008), 4 (2011), Beyoncé (2013), and Lemonade (2016).
Beyonce announced that the album would be part of a trilogy, conceived during the pandemic, hours before the album’s release.
