Beyoncé Sets New Record with Surprise Super Bowl Singles
Beyoncé becomes the first Black female artist to have five songs simultaneously chart in the top five on iTunes.
After surprise dropping her newest singles, “TEXAS HOLD ‘EM” and “16 CARRIAGES,” Beyoncé has reached a new musical milestone. On February 15, she became the first Black female artist to occupy the top five simultaneously. The tracks that helped reach this milestone are “TEXAS HOLD ‘EM” (Explicit, Clean, Acapella, and Instrumental versions) and “16 CARRIAGES.”
The two country singles were released after the 32-time Grammy winner teased new music in her Verizon Super Bowl commercial, which aired on February 11. Beyoncé is first seen recording a music video for her song “MY HOUSE,” which was released alongside Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé in December 2023. She then attempts to break the internet and Verizon’s “crazy powerful” 5G network in several ways. She opens a lemonade stand, plays the saxophone on a jazz album, goes live on Twitch under the alias “iamSlayonce,” and even launches a rocket to be the first woman to perform in space.
After her attempts to break Verizon’s network fail, she states, “Okay, they ready, drop the new music.” Shortly after, she released the teaser for Act II of Renaissance with a release date of March 29. In the video, a woman drives a taxi in a rural area, reminding many fans of the last scene in Lady Gaga and Beyoncé’s “Telephone” music video released on March 15, 2010. A group of men are then shown standing before a billboard of Beyoncé that reads “TEXAS! HOLD ‘EM,” which plays in the background. A single man turns away and points toward the taxi as it drives by.
IT'S GIVING PART 2 OF TELEPHONE! pic.twitter.com/9ExgJ9mR30
— ⋆ ᵀᴬᴱ ⋆ (@hardtingz) February 12, 2024
“TEXAS HOLD ‘EM” is challenging for a top 3 debut on the Billboard Hot 100 without a full tracking week. This comes after the single was denied radio play on an Oklahoma radio station, KYKC. A fan who requested to have the song played received an email from the station stating, “We do not play Beyoncé on KYKC as we are a country music station.” Shortly after this tweet went viral, the station began adding the song to its queue. “Lots of calls coming in for Beyoncé’s Texas Hold ‘Em. It’s coming up in a few minutes,” the account posted on X.
The Beyhive was quick to defend the songstress by trending “BEYONCÉ IS COUNTRY” on X. Many fans speculate the third act of Renaissance will continue to reclaim genres of music originally made popular by Black artists.
black people created house music
— Monterius (@BaldHeadLesbian) February 12, 2024
black people created country music
black people created rock music
BABY, THIS IS THE RENAISSANCE!
Fans can support “TEXAS HOLD ‘EM” and “16 CARRIAGES” on all streaming services.
Isaiah is an entertainment writer for Glitter Magazine with a focus on music and film stories. He enjoys the aforementioned topics as well as performing, yoga, and fashion.
