Beyoncé’s ‘Renaissance’ concert film earns $22M in opening weekend
Beyonce’s highly-anticipated ‘Renaissance’ concert film had the biggest December box office opening in years, earning $22 million.
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An Oklahoma radio station added Beyoncé’s latest country songs to its playlist after a viral post on social media platform X alleged the station refused a request to play the singer-songwriter’s latest single “Texas Hold ‘Em,” because they are “a country music station.”
It’s the 32-time Grammy winner’s first venture into country music in her decades-long career, and is part of her country album “Renaissance: Act II.” The song was released alongside another single, “16 Carriages.”
Both were in the top two spots of the Apple Music country charts as of Tuesday afternoon, and in the number two and three spots across all Apple Music genres.
Oklahoma country radio station won’t play Beyoncé’s country song yet, posts claim
According to a post made on X, user @jussatto requested the song be played by local country radio station KYKC in Ada.
A response email came from South Central Oklahoma Radio Enterprises, a group of five radio stations owned and operated by the Chickasaw Nation.
“Hi – we do not play Beyonce’ on KYKC as we are a country music station,” the email read in a screenshot posted to X.
The user @jussatto asked others to reach out to the station to request the song. According to a screenshot posted by X user @MakhissaDrame3, the station said they would “happily play the song” once it is high enough on the charts.
Despite its success so far on the Apple Music charts, we won’t know if Beyoncé’s singles will rank on Billboard’s country charts until next week.
Roger Harris, general manager of SCORE Broadcasting, released a statement Tuesday afternoon regarding the claims:
“While Beyonce’ has long been prominent on our playlists for SCORE radio stations KADA and KXFC, she has not been traditionally considered a country music artist,” Harris wrote. “While we were briefly unaware of the rapid success of her recently released country music offerings, her new country music offerings were added to our KYKC playlist this morning.”
‘Texas Hold ‘Em’ reflects past controversy over ‘Old Town Road’
Beyoncé isn’t the first artist with an R&B, hip hop and pop background to step into country music.
Back in 2019, Lil Nas X’s viral hit “Old Town Road” was disqualified from the Billboard country charts for “not embracing enough elements of today’s country music.”
“I just think country people do not see that as a country song,” said Shane McAnally at the time, one of country’s biggest hit-makers who has written for Sam Hunt, Kacey Musgraves, Kenny Chesney and more. ″Pop listeners think it’s a country song.”
The song is the current record holder for the longest-running No. 1 song on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart.
