On a Thursday afternoon in mid May, Nottoway Plantation, the largest antebellum plantation in the United States, burned to the ground in Louisiana. A few hours later, Beyoncé took to the stage at Soldier Field in Chicago to perform night one of her Cowboy Carter tour. Both of these events, revelatory in nature, are telling of the times, specifically the reality for Black people in the U.S. In the same country, where the souls of formerly enslaved African Americans were freed by the flames, tens of thousands of people bore witness to the glory of Beyoncé Giselle Knowles Carter.
Since the release of Cowboy Carter, national and international conversations have occurred about the Black origins of country music. Beyoncé’s historical Album of the Year win at the 67th Annual Grammy Awards served as a form of reparations for the decades-long mistreatment and erasure of Black women in the genre. Suddenly, it appeared change had finally come to the country music industry. Except that is not what has occurred in reality.
Country music festivals have continued their age-old tradition of omitting Black and brown artists — with the exception being the artists featured on Cowboy Carter, such as Shaboozey — from their lineups. In 2024, women artists accounted for 8% of the songs played on country music radio. Less than 1% of the songs were from Black women. According to Dr. Jada Watson, principal investigator at SongData, country music radio played “Texas Hold ‘Em” until they reached their quota.
Photo by Julian Dakdouk
At the 2025 American Music Awards, Megan Moroney perpetuated the lie that country music has no Black roots and instead credited the invention of the genre to The Carter Family. The family would not have had access to the bluegrass musical traditions they later transcribed and recorded for The Bristol Sessions without the contributions of Lesley Riddle, an accomplished musician. On the same night where Beyoncé became the first Black woman in the history of the AMAs to win in the country music categories, the country music industry, through the mouth of Moroney, reminded her and Black country artists who they believe the genre belongs to.
The great Cowboy Carter project failed to create sustainable change in the country music industry. But you would never know that on the Cowboy Carter tour.
On the hallowed grounds of stadiums throughout the United States, and eventually Europe, the Cowboy Carter tour stands as a beacon of America’s multiracial and multicultural success. From the rodeo to the ballroom, Beyoncé has taken on the role as America’s educator in a time of overt, politically charged anti-intellectualism. To combat the forces that be, Beyoncé elects to become Lady Liberty, the pinnacle of American ideals to the rest of the world. However, the emphasis on herself as America creates factures in the country she is trying to make.
There are many founding fathers and mothers in Beyoncé’s America. Jimi Hendrix. Linda Martell. Chuck Berry. Tina Turner. Frankie Beverly. Little Richard. Her America is Black, and she is at the epicenter of it. Beyoncé opens the tour with a requiem, a hymn for the dead. In this case, “American Requiem,” a mass for the death of America.
Photo by Raven Varona
For some, America died on Election Day. For many Black people, America was never alive at all. They were never granted access into the bosom of America’s freedoms, yet it was Black women from whom America suckled milk from their tits in order to survive. Like country music, America does not exist without the sacrifices of Black women and their labor. This is why Beyoncé has positioned herself as America’s beginning, middle, and end.
After Beyoncé has paid her respects to the dead, she channels the spirit of Hendrix to perform his rendition of the “Star-Spangled Banner”, made famous by his performance of the national anthem at Woodstock, where he protested the Vietnam War. His interpretation of the song was described by many as Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Had A Dream” speech in guitar format. The song ends with a bold proclamation across the stadium screen: “Never ask permission for something that already belongs to you”, which leads into “Freedom”, the Kendrick Lamar assisted track that served as the campaign song for Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign.
It calls back another time in American history where the conditions and expectations for Black women were apparent. Followed by “Why Don’t You Love Me”, a song that centers on a woman questioning why her lover does not recognize the value within her, similar to the nation’s refusal to elect a Black woman as president. No matter how hard a Black woman climbs, America will always be there to remind her of her flaws. In the first of four tour interludes, the words of Ras Baraka enter into the atmosphere.
“I want to hear an American poem,” he says. “Something American, you know? Some sassy shit or South Carolina slave shouter. Alabama backwoods church shack call and response.”
The words, which ripple throughout the halls of the stadiums, are accompanied by footage of two Black men at the rodeo with an American flag behind them, Black and white footage of Black children in the civil rights era, clips of Black people in the modern day, and a side-by-side of The White House next to an image of Black children in an antiquated schoolhouse. All the while, clips of Baraka performing his poem aloud at Def Poetry Jam are played throughout, back and forth, as an omnipresent reminder of America’s broken promises to Black people, the descendants of enslaved Africans, who built the house that President Trump resides in, the one Harris was denied access to.
The interlude provides a natural transition to “America Has A Problem”, a Kilo Ali sampled track, which addressed the ramifications of the War on Drugs and the crack epidemic in 1990s Atlanta. In the context of the Cowboy Carter tour, the drug destroying the social fabric of Black communities throughout the U.S. is Donald Trump, the commander in chief who is beloved by the country music industry. The same industry that denied Beyoncé acceptance into their good ole boys club via a Country Music Association nomination for Cowboy Carter.
Her defiance, to create a “country” album outside of the unspoken rules and norms of the country music industry, was seen by some as an attempt to burn down Nashville and remake it in her image. And even if her endeavor was successful — which it was not because the country music industry is stronger than ever — the flames do not equate to reparations. And the sins of the past are still being played on country music radio.
At times, the Cowboy Carter tour feels hollow. Yes, the tour is a cause for celebration. It is Beyoncé’s victory lap. She has achieved her coveted Album of the Year win, a prestigious award that only four Black women have achieved and one that she shared with Blue Ivy Carter, her firstborn daughter, whose performance on the tour can be described as a coronation moment for the preteen. The presence of Rumi Carter, her second daughter, causes every heart in the stadium to swell with compassion towards the beautiful example of Black girlhood. These are the moments that bring life into the Cowboy Carter tour, where Beyoncé’s heart is on display.
However, the sociopolitical messaging and ethos of the Cowboy Carter tour fails to achieve the intended lesson Beyoncé has for us. The reality is that Black women, specifically Black women artists in country music, will continue to be mistreated like Linda Martell. Unlike Beyoncé, who can return back to Renaissance, there is no escape from the country music industry for them. They will always be country; Beyoncé will not. In the years to come, with the advent of nostalgia bias, the Cowboy Carter album and tour will be revered. Even now, the tour is critically acclaimed, but very similar to the burning of the Nottoway Plantation, just because something no longer exists in the physical does not mean we are not privy to its pain. Cowboy Carter has become its own requiem.
Excellent article!