Beyoncé has made history. According to Billboard, she’s officially become the first Black woman to top the Country Albums chart with her release of “Act II: Cowboy Carter.”
On Sunday, April 8, the album broke to number one in the United States, surpassing Morgan Wallen’s “One Thing At a Time” on the country charts and passing by Future and Metro Boomin’s “We Don’t Trust You” on the Top Album list. Act II: Cowboy Carter has also made waves with its physical sales. It earned more than 407,000 units, which has impressively passed by We Don’t Trust You, which earned 131,000 at its peak during its second week.
Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter album has more than 300 million on-demand streams and around 168,000 in traditional album sales.
This feat is even more impressive considering the success of her last country single, “Texas Hold ‘Em,” which was the first song by a Black woman to top the Hot Country Songs chart. Since “Texas Hold ‘Em” comfortably sat at the top of the Country Songs chart for over seven weeks.
Beyoncé opened up about putting out the album in an Instagram post on March 19.
She wrote, “Today marks the 10-day countdown until the release of Act ii. Thank you from the bottom of my heart to all of the supporters of TEXAS HOLD ‘EM and 16 CARRIAGES. I feel honored to be the first Black woman with the number one single on the Hot Country Songs chart. That would not have happened without the outpouring of support from each and every one of you. My hope is that years from now, the mention of an artist’s race, as it relates to releasing genres of music, will be irrelevant.”
Beyoncé continued, “This album has been over five years in the making. It was born out of an experience that I had years ago where I did not feel welcomed…and it was very clear that I wasn’t. But, because of that experience, I did a deeper dive into the history of Country music and studied our rich musical archive. It feels good to see how music can unite so many people around the world while also amplifying the voices of some of the people who have dedicated so much of their lives educating on our musical history.”
The multihyphenate acknowledged the backlash she got for making an album of this genre, but she used it to make Cowboy Carter come together. She wrote, “The criticisms I faced when I first entered this genre forced me to propel past the limitations that were put on me. Act ii is a result of challenging myself and taking my time to bend and blend genres together to create this body of work.”
“I have a few surprises on the album and have collaborated with some brilliant artists who I deeply respect. I hope that you can hear my heart and soul and all the love and passion that I poured into every detail and every sound.”
