Beyoncé Shares Inspiration Behind New Album, Cowboy Carter
With only a week and a half left until her debut country album, Beyoncé took to Instagram to share the creative process that went into Cowboy Carter.
The post revealed the powerful cover art for the album. It depicts Beyoncé decked out in red, white, and blue country attire astride a white horse. She carries an American flag and wears a pageant sash with the words “Cowboy Carter” spelled across it. The image she created for this album truly resembles the themes present in country music.
In the caption, she states “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.”
According to NBC, fans speculate that the unwelcome incident she refers to is the 2016 Country Music Awards. During the show, she performed “Daddy Lessons” with the iconic country group The Chicks. While her audience loved the performance, it also received heavy backlash at the time. As she mentions in her post, this harsh treatment prompted her to “propel past the limitations that were put on me.”
The Dixie chicks spoke about performing with Beyonce and seeing how she experienced so much racism during and after the show. I believe Cowboy Carter was born from this moment pic.twitter.com/oT6yEE82nH
— Bobby (@BobbyKingDeal) March 19, 2024
Cowboy Carter is the second installment in a three-part project from the “Texas Hold ‘Em” singer. The first part was Renaissance, a dance music album released in 2022. This triple project was conceived during the COVID-19 pandemic. Fans believe this is Beyoncé’s attempt to reclaim genres of music pioneered by Black people.
The fact that this whole “Cowboy Carter” album is the result of how she felt treated after performing on the CMT’s is insane. Now she’s the first Black Woman to have a number one on the Hot Country Songs chart — Icon.
— Sean Garrette (@seangarrette) March 19, 2024
As the first Black woman with a #1 single on the Hot Country Songs chart, Beyoncé‘s new album will help pave the way for other Black country artists to gain the recognition they deserve. Hopefully, it will put a spotlight on Black country music as a whole.
You can listen to the available singles from Cowboy Carter here.
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