No Beyoncé era arrives without its controversy, and her latest is no different. This past Sunday (February 11), Bey kicked off the era of her new album, Act II, which, given the sounds of the pair of singles “16 Carriages” and “Texas Hold ‘Em,” sounds like it will be a country album. Still, at least one country station was seemingly reluctant to play the new songs.
Yesterday (February 13), an X (formerly Twitter) user shared a note from an Oklahoma-based radio station on social media. The note was a response to a request to play “Texas Hold ‘Em,” which read, “We do not play Beyoncé on KYKC as we are a country music station.”
However, Entertainment Weekly has now reported that KYKC has added both “Texas Hold ‘Em” and “16 Carriages” to its rotation. According to Entertainment Weekly, a representative from the station’s parent company, S.C.O.R.E., said that station manager Roger Harris “was removed and didn’t know otherwise” that Beyoncé had shared new country music.
Harris in an email to EW, “Up until now, she hasn’t been a ‘country artist.’ So..we responded to the email in the same way we would have responded to someone requesting a Rolling Stones song on our country station.”
KYKC themselves confirmed via X that Bey’s new music had been added to their docket, following an outpouring of requests from the Beyhive.
Lots of call coming in for Beyoncé’s Texas Hold ‘Em. It’s coming up in minutes pic.twitter.com/w9hZ24w4aw
— 100.1 KYKC (@1001KYKC) February 13, 2024
The publication also notes that Columbia Records is now pushing “Texas Hold ‘Em” and “16 Carriages” to country radio.
Act II is out 3/29 via Parkwood Entertainment and Columbia.